> John Thornton <jthorn65 at sbcglobal.net> asks:
>
> > I need a few recommendations for recent works of fiction that
> > are worth reading.
>
> Try _A Suitable Boy_ by Vikram Seth. There is by now a bunch of
> English language novels and poems by Indian authors that in my
> mind constitute a sub-genre like Irish authors, British authors,
> American authors.
-----------------------------
On the subject of Indian authors, A Fine Balance, by Rohinton Mistry, now
resident in Canada, is very gripping. It's set in Mumbai in the early 70s,
around the time of the State of Emergency declared by Indira Ghandi, and the
politics serve as a backdrop for the story of two untouchables and the bonds
they form with a student and the women who employs them in a small piecework
operation run out of her home. It's very poignant and quite harrowing in
parts and in the best traditions of the realist novel.
MG