HT Reviewers pick their best reads of 2024

This year, HT reviewers found themselves immersed in everything from popular novels by Japanese authors and Urdu works about a forgotten freedom fighter to quiet books whose protagonists journey within and without in their quest for self discovery. Science fiction featuring manipulators of time, wish-fulfilling monsters, and portals to the supernatural and books on Palestine and Arab immigrants in the West also make it to this excellent reading list

ARUNIMA MAZUMDAR

Japanese novels, science fiction, books on Palestine and more. (Akash Shrivastav)

Reviewer’s pick: What You’re Looking For Is In The Library by Michiko Aoyama (Courtesy the subject)

In this novel translated from the original Japanese, five individuals find purpose and meaning
after reading books recommended to them by an enigmatic librarian

CHINTAN GIRISH MODI

Reviewer’s pick: Never Never Land by Namita Gokhale (Courtesy the subject)

A novel set in Kumaon that ushers the reader into a stillness that encourages forgiveness and a letting
go of long held notions

CHITTAJIT MITRA

Reviewer’s pick: ‘How Long Can the Moon be Caged?’ by Suchitra Vijayan and Francesca Recchia (Courtesy the subject)

A book that stresses the importance of being an enlightened citizen and tells the stories of many
individuals who took a stand for the rights of others, and were targeted as a result

LAMAT R HASAN

Reviewer’s pick: ‘Barkatullah Bhopali’ by M Irfan and ‘Maulana Barkatullah Bhopali’ by Sayyad Abid Ali Vajdi al-Husaini (Courtesy the subject)

Two books on a founding member of the Ghadar Party, who set up a provisional Indian government in exile in Kabul in 1915, and appealed to the Emperor of Japan and to Lenin to help India’s struggle for freedom

MAJID MAQBOOL

Reviewer’s pick: A Day in the Life of Abed Salama: Anatomy of a Jerusalem Tragedy by Nathan Thrall (Courtesy the subject)

A Pulitzer Prize winning book on a father’s struggle to find answers about his child’s death, and a blistering satire on race in American publishing

PRAHLAD SRIHARI

Reviewer’s pick: Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner (Courtesy the subject)

A challenging marvel of a novel that works inquiries into the nature of charisma and the gap between
ideology and reality into a high-stakes espionage plot

PRANAVI SHARMA

Reviewer’s pick:My Friends byHisham Matar (Courtesy the subject)

A novel that spans three decades of personal and political upheaval but is set over the course of a single two-hour walk through London

SAUDAMINI JAIN

Reviewer’s pick:We are Here by David Nicholls (Courtesy the subject)

A post pandemic literary romcom featuring characters from the generation that never quite
cracked romantic love

SAURABH SHARMA

Reviewer’s pick:The MANIAC by Benjamin Labatut (Courtesy the subject)

A book that not only stretches the boundaries of what can be labelled fiction but also attempts to
uncover the limits of reason in those celebrated for their reasoning ability

SIMAR BHASIN

Reviewer’s pick: The Inheritance of Exile: Stories from South Philly by Susan Muaddi Darraj (Courtesy the subject)

Interlinked short stories of displacement, memory and the inheritance of loss centred on the experiences of the Arab-American community

SUHIT BOMBAYWALA

Reviewer’s pick: Hyperion by Dan Simmons (Courtesy the subject)

Featuring intergalactic pilgrims, time tombs, and a monstrous Shrike, this is a mighty work of
science fiction that’s relentlessly entertaining

SYED SAAD AHMED

Reviewer’s pick: A Master of Djinn by P Djèlí Clark (Courtesy the subject)

A steampunk novel that reimagines Cairo and its history and straddles the genres of murder mystery,
science fiction, and romance

TEJA LELE

Reviewer’s pick: Butter by Asako Yuzuki (Courtesy the subject)

A delectable murder mystery inspired by a case that transfixed Japan, this is also a slice-of-life take
on myriad women’s issues