100 books like Take a Chance on Me

Hoang’s writing throws light on autism. Violinist Anna is an internet sensation who is experiencing burnout. When her serious boyfriend suggests an open relationship before they marry. Anna’s ASD diagnosis and her anger propel her to change her life. In steps Quan, a tattooed motorcyclist, the classic bad boy for a one-night stand. However, Quan is fighting his own demons, a cancer survivor who’s dating again. In Quan, Anna finds a man who understands her uniqueness and blossoms until a family tragedy thrusts Anna into life with no control. Quan and Anna’s relationship takes a back seat. Hoang’s book opens the world of Asian families and Anna’s loss of autonomy as her family coerces her to step up as a caregiver, as is often experienced in the migrant community.

Syal’s story centres on three childhood friends who grow up in East London. Tania is under pressure to create a cutting-edge documentary on Asian marriages for her employer and is reassessing her life, as a girlfriend to Martin, and a dutiful daughter to her ailing father. While Sunita faces an age-related crisis, her dismal job, her lifeless marriage, and self-harming. The only one who has her life in order is Chila, a naïve, dutiful wife and daughter. As the story unfolds, we find that living in a migrant community and keeping to traditional values is complicated. A poignant insight into the lives of the Punjabi community in the UK and first-generation children who struggle with cross-cultural clashes while keeping their toes in their heritage in different ways.

Kwan’s book is an introduction to the life of Chinese migrants in Singapore. Nicholas takes his American Chinese girlfriend, Rachal, to Singapore for his best friend’s wedding. Rachel discovers the lavish lifestyle of the Young family in Singapore and the excesses of crazy rich Asians. It is a story of prejudices, from Rachel’s American attitude that going back means witnessing poverty and from Nick’s mother that Rachel’s single parent modest upbringing will never fit with Nick’s wealthy upbringing. It is a story of arranged marriages, a family’s influence on children’s lives. It is about wealthy upper-class Chinese families and their scheming behaviour when one of their own breaks with tradition and how the younger generation is rebelling against tradition.

Dev’s book is an escape into the exuberance of migrant families from India. Ria is a reclusive Bollywood actress, who betrays Vikram, her childhood sweetheart, to protect him from the same fate as her father. Ten years later, Ria returns to Chicago for her cousin Nik’s wedding, knowing she will meet Vik again. For Ria, the loving embrace of her family and found family provides the safety and love she needs to reassess her life in Bollywood. For Vik meeting Ria again brings back all the pain he thought he had recovered from after her betrayal. In the two weeks, Ria and Vik rekindle the love they have both denied. A beautifully written story of migrants who embrace their life in America but still hold on to their Indian heritage.

I absolutely adore stories where a seemingly innocuous vacation turns on its heels into a gripping, out-of-this-world adventure. And this book is exactly that! When Ash (Ashoka) Mistry, an Indian mythology geek who lives in England, visits his aunt and uncle in Varanasi, the holy city of the Ganges in India, strange occurrences begin to happen, and Ash discovers that heroes and monsters of Indian myths have come back to life. Top that up with one character wanting to bring back Ravana, the demon king with ten heads and the ultimate essence of evil, and you have an adventure that’s got you at the edge of your seat!

It is hard to say whether the stories of Malgudi Days are for children or adults. R.K. Narayan, the pioneer of early Indian literature in English, has written a series of delightful books based upon a fictional village called Malgudi. This first one is a collection containing 32 short stories, a series of lovable characters. I especially love how he portrays the teen angst of characters like Iswaren, Ramu, and Sambu whose lives determined by passing exams, are so far from the lives of South Asian teens in the West. Unlike today’s stories with pacing and riveting plots, this one is a lesson in slowing down to take a deep and close examination of Indian rural life, particularly for these young adults in Malgudi.

Although I contributed to this volume, I am recommending it not because of that but because it has a couple of excellent chapters on Gandhi. Best known is Shahid Amin’s, "Gandhi as Mahatma: Gorakhpur District, Eastern UP, 1921-2". In this, he examines Gandhi’s fleeting visit in February 1921 to Gorakhpur District, a largely rural area close to the border with Nepal – showing how this visit was understood by the local peasantry. Many tales circulated, many of which involved the idea that Gandhi had the power of rewarding those who accepted his message and punishing those who did not in supernatural ways. The chapter provides a superb analysis of the ways in which his message was filtered and changed in ways that Gandhi himself not only had no part in, but which he – when brought to his notice – repudiated. The chapter by Partha Chatterjee, "Gandhi and the Critique… show more.

Set in South India in the 1950s, this is a story of Meera, Manuel, and Shankar—three conflicted souls, each with secrets that can destroy the other. It is a beautiful novel showing how one can become a prisoner of one's secrets and live compromised lives. The descriptions are so hauntingly vivid that they will remain etched in my mind forever. I loved the narration and the poetic language, and the bittersweet ending was like icing on the cake.

Reading Guha was an eye-opening experience for me for at least two reasons. One, he was the founding figure of subaltern historiography; and two, abandoning the colonial knowledge project, he introduced a whole new horizon of South Asian studies to his readers. First by acknowledging and then by understanding the consciousness and politics of the colonial marginal, Guha explored peasant insurgency in a new light.

In his battle against colonialist and nationalist historiographies, Guha also distanced himself from his Marxist colleagues in history. 

During my student days in the early 1970s, I travelled throughout North India by train and country bus, often staying in the countryside in former colonial rest houses from days of British rule in India. I tried to imagine what it was like for the British East India Company officials before 1857, and then for the British colonial officials who replaced the company officers after the Indian Sepoy Mutiny. The Siege of Krishnapur vividly recreates the 1857 mutiny from the perspective of British company officials and their families trapped by the local soldiers they had employed. 

Farrell used a diary and letters from those besieged in the real city of Lucknow to illustrate the horrors of hunger, impending rape, torture, and eventual death that many of the British faced. The scenes are graphic, and the portrayals of the relationships among those trapped have stayed with me for years. The novel… show more.