Books to look forward to in 2024

From Salman Rushdie’s survival story to Japanese mysteries to how biotech will rule the world (if it is not already) to a first-time anthology of Haiku poetry from India and a much-anticipated fantasy novel, 2024 looks rub-your-hands-in-glee delicious when it comes to reading options. So, here are some titles, fiction as well as non-fiction, that caught our eye. As always, in no particular order.

Magic Pill: How The New Weight Loss Drugs Will Change Our World by Johann Hari (Bloomsbury)

Modern society is rife with dangers — most pressing of all, those to our health. As obesity rates skyrocket and solutions seem few and far between, one apparent antidote has been grabbing headlines: semaglutide, a drug that appears to eliminate hunger as we know it. In this timely investigation, the author asks: is this drug a liberation or another symptom of our deeply dysfunctional relationship with food?

Mafia Queens Of India by S Hussain Zaidi (S&S)

This is the story of female underworld/mafia dons who have dominated various parts of the country with their feral power and stealth over the past decades. Several of these women started as the archetypal abla nari— victims of poverty, victims of circumstances, victims of violence. But once they overcame their obstacles, these women became the exact monsters with whom they lived fearfully. 

Biopeculiar: Stories by Gigi Ganguly (Context)

These are speculative tales that tackle climate change and precarity with warmth and humour. Cunning bees, mischievous moss, and runaway clouds run amok in this collection. At once fantastical and familiar, these stories inhabit the world in which we live and yet delve into interstices that may have evaded the eye.

How to Love In Sanskrit by Suhas Mahesh & Anusha Rao (HarperCollins)

A beautiful, delightful book of translations of Sanskrit love poetry by Suhas Mahesh and Anusha Rao. How do you nurse a broken heart? Brew a love potion? Turn someone crimson with a compliment? There’s something for everyone in this ancient guide to
love written for modern readers.

Fishbowl by Varsha Seshan (Penguin)

A novel in verse about living with loss, mental health issues and bullying —but also about life and joy and the pleasures of friendship. Mahee has lost her parents in a car crash and comes to live with her uncle and his wife. But she is traumatised by guilt — what if she had a role in her parents’ deaths?

Whose Ramayana Is It Anyway? by Natasha Sarkar (Mapin)

If there is one grand tale that has impacted Asia, it has to be the Ramayana, the great Indian epic. In this sumptuously illustrated volume, the author highlights the various South and Southeast Asian traditions and variations of the tale, with nearly a hundred superb watercolour paintings. 

The Great Flap Of 1942 by Mukund Padmanabhan (Penguin)

This is a narrative on a neglected, scarcely known, slice of history — principally, a period between December 1941 and mid-1942 — when India was in a frightful panic, believing (mistakenly) that Japan would launch a full-scale invasion. This was a period when the Raj administration unduly panicked, when the tongue of rumour about Japanese prowess and British weakness wagged wildly, and when there was a huge and largely unmapped exodus (of both Indians and Europeans) from both sides of the coastline to ‘safer’ inland regions. 

Late-Blooming Cherries: Haiku Poetry From India edited by Kynpham Sing and Rimi Nath (HarperCollins)

This first-ever anthology of haikus from India arrives in the aftermath of the long isolation of the pandemic with experiences so nostalgic and acute that one is reminded again of what it feels like to be human. From young love and small joys to the disease and despair of loneliness, from a child’s bed to a grandmother’s lap, this compendium has a little bit of everything.