13 Books to Read in 2026

After the Nations

Rana Dasgupta

As American hegemony weakens and autocracies rise, the nation-state system disintegrates and billions of people remain insecure. Inside After the NationsFrom ancient empires to modern tech giants, Rana Dasgupta traces how this system came to be and why it is failing today. Promoting a reimagining of citizenship, law, and economics for our global, fragile age, this book is a bold and urgent analysis of the world’s political disintegration and what might replace it.

Red Warning

Sunil Gupta and Samanwaya Rautray

Inside Red WarningSunil Gupta, former Inspector of Tihar and co-author of bestselling book Land Order (currently streaming as a successful prison series on Netflix), picks up where his previous book left off. In this book, he talks about a series of escapes in Tihar Jail that were the highlights of his career spanning over three decades. The stories involve the escape of Charles Sobhraj and Sher Singh Rana, who killed dacoit parliamentarian Phoolan Devi.

Girls Club

Harnidh Kaur

Girls Club A tough, compassionate, and immensely useful book for ambitious Indian women navigating workplaces, power, and personality. It blends manifesto-style articles with priority action tools: burnout protocols, salary scenarios, boundary templates, career maps, and more. It’s structured like a survival guide, asking “Why didn’t anyone teach us this?” You can browse, highlight or gift it to every woman who asks.

Begum Samru: A Biography

Ira Mukhoty

In the late 18th century, as the Mughal Empire collapsed and British power was still uncertain, India was a land of shifting loyalties and fierce ambitions. Amid Maratha, Jat and European struggles for control, a new type of woman emerged from behind the curtain: the Tawaif or courtesan. Through the extraordinary life of Begum Samru, who rose from prostitute to ruler and patron, this book explores how these women gained influence, challenged convention, and shaped the destiny of Hindustan.

The Last of the World

Deepa Anappara

In 1869, as England trains Indian spies to enter forbidden Tibet, Balram joins a dangerous mission to rescue his missing friend. Alongside him, the rebel explorer Katherine, disguised as a monk, travels determined to reach Lhasa. Facing storms, bandits, and their own haunted pasts, these journeys intertwine in this riveting tale of friendship, ambition, and the human drive to leave a mark on the world. The Last of the World It confirms that Deepa Anappara is one of our greatest and most ambitious storytellers.

Absolute Jafar

Sarnath Banerjee

This is the most ambitious work of the world-famous comic book artist. It tells the story of Bhrigu and his son Jafar and deals with themes of displacement and exile, making sense of history, identity and contemporary realities in a graphic novel.

India in the 100 list

Rohit Saran

A visual exploration of India through stunning charts and graphs that transform complex data sets into compelling stories, making information accessible, understandable and engaging, offering new insights into the country you thought you knew but didn’t quite know.

Meena Kandasamy

Through the lens of a young Indian woman living in London who faces brutal online trolling over a sex scandal, Meena Kandasamy offers a nuanced narrative about race, politics, gender and sexuality, and the insecurities that drive people to do the things they do.

Love Sex India: An Anthology

Paromita Vohra

A powerful collection of true stories from Indians who discuss their experiences with sex and get honest about their desires, needs, kinks and expectations.

Paralympic Revolution

With Boria Majumdar, Trisha Ghosal and Rohan Chowdhury

India stood still at Paris 2024 and watched in awe as Paralympians brought a record-breaking 29 medals to the country; it was the country’s best-ever performance. But this book isn’t just about victories; It’s about the struggles, courage and spirit of athletes who redefine what it means to represent a nation. This is about them, our Paralympians, and the path they pave in silence.

The Ghost of India’s Small Towns

Ruskin Bond

India’s small towns, like its villages, once had a charm of their own. This was where many Native Americans lived, but they are now rapidly emptying out as more and more residents move to larger cities. This book is an elegy for all we have lost as small towns are buried under concrete and pollution. It is also an evocation of everything worth celebrating about these unforgettable places.

Twin Malaise

Parakala Prabhakar

Subtitled “Majoritarianism and Inequality in India,” this book is an attempt to understand why our nation is so unequal. It looks at the issue of economic inequality from the perspective of majoritarianism. They may or may not be causally related to each other. But they still reinforce each other.

Watch

George Saunders

The second novel of the 2017 Booker Prize-winning book emerges on the deathbed of a powerful oil company CEO named KJ Boone. His guide in these final hours is Jill “Doll” Blaine, a young woman who died tragically in 1976 and devoted her afterlife to comforting the dying. As Boone runs towards his death, visitors (earthly and otherworldly, living and dead) arrive and clamor for a showdown.