10 Best Books Written by Indian Women That Everyone Should Read

After the untimely death of his father, Raghav Sharma abandons his dream job to move to the bustling city of Mumbai where a chance encounter with his childhood crush, Jaya, and best friend, Kale turns his life upside down. From a cushy job in the booming BPO industry to the seedy underbelly of Mumbai's property mafia, Punch by Vandana Nair is Raghav's story of how, in the boxing rings of Brabourne was born a battle of courage, friendship, and love in India's metropolis.

Traditional Indian homes have three to four generations living inside of them—after marriage, a wife typically moves in to her husband's family home. Needless to say, family is extremely important in Indian culture, and in Anita Desai's Clear Light of Day, that is infinitely clear. We meet the Das family at the beginning of the novel in post-partition India, and throughout the story flashback to their childhood through adolescence and early adulthood. With their age, we see the evolution of Muslim-Hindu tensions, the power of childhood and forgiveness, and how the roles of mothers as caretakers evolves with the modernization of India. The only aspect of the book more fascinating than the family tensions amidst death, love, and rebellion is the fact that Desai considers the novel her most autobiographical work.

Cousins Anju and Sudha had vastly different upbringings: the former in a well-known upper-caste Calcutta family, and the latter the daughter of the family black sheep. Born the same day, also the very day their fathers died a violent death, the two were inexplicably bonded through early adulthood till Sudha unearths a family secret that tears the two apart. Years later, when tragedy strikes their families once again, they have only one another to turn to. For anyone with a sister—blood or not, you're bound to drop a tear or two on the pages of Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni's Sister of My Heart.

All retired judge Jemubhai Patel wants is to quietly retire in the foothills of the Himalayas unbothered. He scoffs at his Indian father and former wife, both whom he abandoned after torturing the latter. Unaccepted by the British despite a relentless attempt to educate himself and adopt their mannerisms, Kiran Desai's The Inheritance of Loss explores the themes of colonialism and effects of post-colonialism through stories told by Patel's granddaughter with whom he lives, and his cooks son who lives as an undocumented immigrant in New York.

The way football is a religion to Texans, cricket is to all Indians. One of the more lighthearted books on this list, Anuja Chauhan's Zoya Factor is the story of Zoya Singh Solanki. Born the historic day India won the World Cup in 1983, the team finds that they win a match every time she has breakfast with the team. Taken on as an honorary team member for India's tenth ICC World Cup tour, the entire country of India places its hopes on the advertising executive's shoulders—including the team's (very) cute captain—see for yourself in the Bollywood movie the book was recently turned in to, featuring India's favorite fashionista Sonam Kapoor.

Before turmeric face masks were being sold at Sephora, Indian grandmothers were massaging coconut oil-turmeric mixtures in to our skin for glowy, hydrated skin. In

Roots to Radiance, Nikita Upadhyay blends her traditional Indian upbringing and homegrown family recipes with her years of experience as Cosmo India's beauty editor. The DIY beauty book with a foreword written by Bobbi Brown hosts recipes for whiter teeth, thicker hair, and smaller pores—definitely check out her recipe for longer lashes, mine have been thicker and longer since I started using her DIY lash growth serum.

Every first-generation American child born in to an Indian family will empathize deeply with this book—as mentioned before. Jhumpa Lahiri's The Namesake will always hold a special place in my heart as the first book I read by an Indian author. The story follows the Ganguli family from their move to America to the birth of their son, Gogol. He rejects everything about his cultural upbringing, embarrassed by his parents as he ventures on his own independent aspirations and love affairs. Lahiri captures the bi-generational immigrant experience beautifully and eloquently, making a story every American should read.

This aforementioned New York Times Bestseller and Man Booker Prize Winner has something for every romantic, politico, and drama lover. Twins Esthappen and Rahel's lives change forever when at a young age they are torn apart. Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things oscillates between their childhood together and the adulthood in which they have reunited. Throughout, there are stories of love, abuse, rejection, and how our small mannerisms and behaviors can change the trajectory of our lives.

We meet rich and powerful Rose, and highly educated civil servant, Sonali, in New Delhi amongst the aftermath of its Independence. Throughout Nayantra Sahgal's Rich Like Us is the tragedy of Rose being unwelcome and unwanted in the family she recently married in to. Sahgal weaves her signature wit throughout the story, welcome relief to its serious education of India's history.

I couldn't just include one Jhumpa Lahiri novel on this list. Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2013, Lahiri's second book, The Lowland, is the story of inseparable brothers Subhash and Udayan. Once they both leave for different universities, they're ideologies go separate ways, and the close tie they once had wears thin. Though their lives intertwine and mirror each other in ways, there are equal times at which you loathe and love each character for how beautifully human they are in their mistakes, imperfections, and pursuit for good.