Great reading that provides a sense of the city, from the Traveler online Ultimate Travel Library.
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A Fine Balance, by Rohinton Mistry (1995)
This outstanding work of fiction is set in an unnamed Indian city by the sea during the tumultuous mid-1970s, at a time when the Indian government has sharply curtailed civil liberties. The book tells the poignant and dramatic story of four strangers who are thrown together by fate during an unusually precarious period.
Maximum City: Bombay Lost & Found, by Suketu Mehta (2004)
Maximum City takes the reader deep beneath the dizzying surface of India’s fastest-paced metropolis, Mumbai. It candidly shares the stories of a riveting jumble of Mumbai’s inhabitants, from desperate slum-dwellers and gangsters to whimsical Bollywood stars and poets.
Sacred Games, by Vikram Chandra (2007)
Set in modern-day Mumbai, Sacred Games reads like a detective thriller, venturing into the city’s deep, dark criminal underworld and beyond. Spies, police, high society figures, beggars, and terrorists all make an appearance in this well-crafted best-seller.
Shantaram, by Gregory David Roberts (2003)
Based on the author’s life, this gripping book is predominantly set in Mumbai, proffering a particularly unique window into the city’s complex underbelly. Roberts, a convicted bank robber, escaped from an Australian prison and fled to India where he lived for many years as a fugitive.
