Thought-provoking fiction novels by Nayantara Sahgal

TOI Write India Author Nayantara Sahgal has written several books and is known for her soul-stirring plots . She has been honoured with the Sahitya Akademi Award, the Sinclair Prize and the Commonwealth Writers' Prize. She is a Member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. She has been awarded the Diploma of Honour from the International Order of Volunteers of Peace (Italy), and an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from the University of Leeds. In 2015, Sahgal returned the prestigious Sahitya Akademi Award which she received in 1986 for her novel ‘Rich Like Us’ as a mark of protest against extremism. Her fiction always highlights the dangers of current political affairs and the impact of politics on society. Here are some of her thought-provoking novels you need to read.

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This book beautifully explores the stigma of divorce in modern India from the point of view of Simrit, a woman attempting to navigate her life after a divorce. Apart from the emotional toll of the ordeal, she has the divorce settlement and society to deal with. The book beautifully captures modern society's old fashioned disapproval of divorce and how it's expressed. She becomes close to Raj, a Member of Parliament, who adds some clever political points to the book, exploring how those in power today are far from our forefathers and barely even stand for their ideals.
Photo: Penguin India

This dystopian setting seems to be eerily close to India's actual future. Told from the point of view of a young reader Rachana, the book shows an India where history books are no longer available and minorities live in perpetual fear. The parallels between this India and the one we live in are haunting.
Photo: Speaking Tiger Publishing Private Limited

Set in the year of Emergency, this book explores how that event affected lives. There are several characters from every walk of life who have a series of consequences to face because of the Emergency.
Photo: HarperCollins

Storm in Chandigarh explores the tension between Punjab and the newly created Haryana with a wide range of characters, all who seem to have similar lives and dreams despite their state.
Photo: Penguin India

In her most recent book, Sahgal beautifully captures what most of us feel while listening to or reading the news. It's told from the point of view of a man called Prabhakar, a political science professor, who meets a beautiful, half-Russian woman named Katrina who tells of her harrowing gang rape in a village. Other incidents, like the finding of a corpse wearing a skullcap throw light on political issues.
Photo: Speaking Tiger Publishing Private Limited

This is a beautifully narrated tale. Set in pre-independence and pre-World War 2, we follow the narrator, Bhushan Singh, as he gets arrested early on in the story. Bhushan is the son of the Raja of Vijaygarh and has had an interesting life and as he's stuck in jail for a long while with a bunch of elderly trade unionists waiting for trial, he starts to regale them with stories of his life.
Photo: HarperCollins