Meena Kandasamy’s collection Tomorrow Someone Will Arrest You is poetry as resistance literature, where aesthetic beauty and political activism merge to challenge a nation’s conscience. By Amritesh Mukherjee

Neha Dixit, the author of The Many Lives of Syeda X, speaks about the story of an ‘invisible’ India through the tale of one working-class woman, her approaches to journalism, and the “collective failure” of Indian society. By Saurabh Sharma

‘However, the happiness was short lived. Soon there was a knock on the door and all hope of love was lost for them. Ayush’s family had informed the police that their son had gone missing for a few hours, and they suspected he had been kidnapped by militants.’ By Arshi Javaid

Despite a lack of narrative focus, Anisha Lalvani’s Girls Who Stray (2025) is a welcome, urgent entry to contemporary Indian literature, a poetic voice echoing the angsts of a generation of Indians, and specifically, of Indian women who refuse to be assigned to their roles. By Karan Madhok

Told through the perspective of twisted innocence, Sakyajit Bhattacharya’s The One Legged looms large with uncertainties, unopened doors, haunted pasts, and an atmosphere of pure terror. By Sneha Pathak

In his multigenerational saga A Person is a Prayer (2024) Ammar Kalia weaves together several characters, each struggling, yearning, and often failing to find clarity in the shadows of their predecessors. As with many internal struggles, they persist in silence. By Shivani Patel

The Great Nicobar Betrayal (2024) is essential reading for anyone concerned about India’s ecological future and the future of our species on Earth. Tansy Troy discusses the collection with an inspired set of illustrations of the island’s many breathtaking species.

Nalanda was not a singular anomaly but the culmination of a thousand years of intellectual tradition. Amritesh Mukherjee reflects on Abhay K.’s latest book on the subject, and how the ‘mahavihara’ can serve as a beacon for contemporary educational institutions.

Satire: The solution to AI mimicking humans is to have humans mimic the AI that mimics the human. From Vikram Chandra and Salman Rushdie to mythological adventures and a popcorny topsy-turvy romance, here is our preview of the 15 hottest and thoroughly fraudulent Indian books for the 2025 summer. By Karan Madhok

Author and journalist Sudeep Chakravarty speaks about the stories that drive him, wandering across genres, and his Delhi-based latest work, Fallen City. By Amritesh Mukherjee

In a world filled with abstractions, the greatest clarity in Gyan Chaturvedi’s The Madhouse (Pagalkhana) comes from the protagonist’s never-ending pursuit for escape: an escape from the Bazaar, from the dependence on commodification, from being commodified themselves. By Karan Madhok

Manu Pillai, the author of Gods, Guns and Missionaries, speaks to Amritesh Mukherjee about history beyond monochromatic brushstrokes, the highs and lows of social media discourse, Hindu plurality, and some recommended books.