India’s Best Authors: The Top 10 Names You Need to Know
There are countless great authors in India, both new and old. From classic authors like RK Narayan to contemporary favorites like Jhumpa Lahiri, there’s something out there to tickle the fancy of every reader. But which authors have earned the top spots on the top 10 best Indian authors list? Here, we’ll take an overview of 10 of the most highly regarded authors in India, and share where you can find their books and what makes them so great.
1) Hari Kunzru
Hari Kunzru is a British novelist, journalist and critic. He was born in London and grew up in New Delhi and the United States. His father was an Indian professor of English at Delhi University, while his mother was an American artist. His first novel, The Impressionist, won the Betty Trask Prize for best first novel by a British writer under thirty-five and has been translated into twenty languages.
2) Chetan Bhagat
Chetan Bhagat is one of the most prolific Indian authors of all time. Born in 1974, he has written 18 novels and has sold over 12 million copies worldwide. His books have also been translated into 44 different languages, making him a truly global author.
Born in Delhi, India to parents from Rajasthan, Chetan attended the prestigious Doon School in Dehradun.
3) Ashwin Sanghi
Sanghi was born in Bangalore, India. He received his M.B.A. from the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, and then went on to work for several years in business before becoming a full-time writer in 1994.
4) Amish Tripathi
Amish Tripathi is the author of The Immortals of Meluha, which was the first book in a series of books called The Shiva Trilogy. His success has led him to become a full-time writer and speaker. He also worked with Disney India on their animated movie, Ramayana.
5) Rupa Gulabrai
Rupa Gulabrai is a female Indian author of children’s literature. She has published over a dozen books and won the Sahitya Akademi Award for her novel, The Village by the Sea. Gulabrai was born in Mumbai, India, but spent most of her childhood in Matheran. Her parents were both doctors, who encouraged her and her siblings to read as much as possible.
6) Durjoy Datta
Durjoy Datta is one of India’s best authors. He was born in New Delhi, India and grew up in Mumbai. He attended the University of Pennsylvania, where he studied economics and worked as an investment banker at JP Morgan Chase. In 2009, he started writing full-time and published his first novel Of Course I Love You! in 2010. His books include It Had To Be You, Of Course I Love You, and She Broke Up, I Didn’t!
7) Anuja Chauhan
Anuja Chauhan is one of India’s best-known authors. She has published four books so far, and her latest novel, The Zoya Factor, released in 2017. Anuja was born and raised in Delhi, and she went on to study at Lady Shri Ram College for Women. She now lives in Mumbai with her husband and son. When not writing novels or columns, she also teaches creative writing at the University of Texas at Austin.
8) Karan Bajaj
Karan Bajaj is the author of three novels. His first novel, The Family Man, was translated into eleven languages and won the Vodafone Crossword Book Award. His second novel, The World Unseen, won the Betty Trask Award for Best First Novel and was also chosen as a Book of the Year by several newspapers.
9) Kiran Manral
Kiran Manral is a well-respected author, journalist and entrepreneur in the Indian literary world. She has published five novels and is currently working on her sixth. Her first novel, The Inheritance of Loss, won the prestigious Man Booker Prize for Fiction in 2006. It was also shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction and longlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. A prolific writer, she is also known as a columnist with many notable publications including The New York Times and The Washington Post.
10) Preeti Shenoy
Preeti Shenoy is an author and illustrator who has published over three hundred children’s books. She was born in Mumbai, India, and she currently lives in San Francisco with her husband. She is the author of many children’s books that have been translated into other languages such as French, German, Spanish and Chinese.