HT reviewers pick their best reads of 2022

HT reviewers have been reading everything from Booker winning novels to sci-fi, children’s books, and Partition memoirs. This collective reading list is both varied and stimulating. Click on the link under each picture to learn about that reviewer’s favourite read of the year

ARUNIMA MAZUMDAR

Nothing like a good book. On a local train in Mumbai (Kunal Patil/HT Photo)

Reviewer’s pick: The Seven Moons of Mali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka (Courtesy the reviewer)

A dark satire about a fictional war photographer who wakes up dead during the Sri Lankan civil war in the 1980s.

CHINTAN GIRISH MODI

Reviewer’s pick: Gupshup Goes to Prison by Arefa Tehsin (Courtesy the reviewer)

Of what can transpire when we think about the limits of punitive action.

KUNAL RAY

Reviewer’s pick: The Girl Who Loved to Sing; Teejan Bai by Lavanya Karthik (Courtesy the reviewer)

Lavanya Karthik’s book is a brief introduction to the life of Teejan Bai, who was constantly forbidden to sing but is now synonymous with Pandavani music

Reviewer’s pick: A Gujarat here a Gujarat There by Krishna Sobti; translated by Daisy Rockwell (Courtesy the reviewer)

A feminist part-memoir set in the years following the Partition of India

PERCY BHARUCHA

Reviewer’s pick: The Lost Homestead by Marina Wheeler (Courtesy the reviewer)

An intimate view of the birth of two nations and the first tottering steps they take.

SAMRAT CHOUDHURY

Reviewer’s pick: Unpopular Essays by Bertrand Russell (Courtesy the reviewer)

On dogmatism and the power of organisations to mould people’s beliefs.

SAUDAMINI JAIN

Reviewer’s pick: Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout (Courtesy the reviewer)

A divorced late-middle-aged couple take a road trip

SIMAR BHASIN

Reviewer’s pick: We Move by Gurnaik Johal (Courtesy the reviewer)

Snapshots of the Punjabi diaspora in west London’s Southall

SONALI MUJUMDAR

Reviewer’s pick: Everything the Light Touches by Janice Pariat (Courtesy the reviewer)

Meshing multiple themes of art, philosophy, science, tradition and progress

SUHIT KELKAR

Reviewer’s pick: Morality for Beautiful Girls by Alexander McCall Smith (Courtesy the reviewer)

Precious Ramotswe uses common sense and kindness to massive effect as a private detective

SYED SAAD AHMED

Reviewer’s picks: The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin and The Calcutta Chromosome by Amitav Ghosh (Courtesy the reviewer)

Two remarkable sci-fi novels with fascinating plots and intricate fictional universes

IN MEMORIAM

Sujoy Gupta(L) and Thubten Samphel (Courtesy the subjects)

This year, the keyboards of two long-time contributors to the HT Books page fell silent. Sujoy Gupta,who lived in Kolkata, reviewed business books, often in a chatty, reader-friendly way that, unexpectedly, highlighted his depth of knowledge and his enduring relationships within the corporate world. Thubten Samphel, who retired as director of the Tibet Policy Institute and was the author of books such as Falling Through the Roof and Copper Mountain, regularly reviewed books on Tibet and titles by members of the Tibetan diaspora. Both are sorely missed.