On The Racks

Aruni Kashyap
His Father’s Disease | Westland

This anthology of short stories effortlessly flits from “sophisticated bathrooms” in Minnesota to encounters with the army in villages of Assam. With grounded narratives and compelling characters, the author delves into what stories about a place are told, those that are worth telling and what they really want to say.

Aparna Karthikeyan
Nine Rupees An Hour | Westland

The author documents the drastic and systemic erosion of traditional livelihoods in rural Tamil Nadu. She travelled across the state for five years and interacted with people—toddy tappers, nadaswaram makers, sari designers, dancers on stilts—who make a living and safeguard their crafts despite low wages, corporatisation and seasonal unpredictability.

Sohan S. Koonar
Paper Lions | Speaking Tiger

The lives of the three protagonists—the only son of an impoverished family who enlists in the British Indian Army, a 12-year-old girl from a nomadic community and a former feudal lord—intertwine against the backdrop of Partition. Through its delineation of family dynamics and class struggles, it captures the tumultuous history of Punjab and the evolution of society in the decades after Independence.