This month’s reading list is proof that books remain the most efficient form of transport. One moment, you are in ancient Rome watching a republic edge towards dictatorship; the next, you are in present-day Mumbai, where property, marriage and social standing are all part of the same intricate negotiation. From there, it’s on to speculative futures powered by unsettling technology, New England family dramas tinged with folklore, and quietly devastating stories about memory and the lives we think we’ve left behind.

‘It Will Come Back to You’ | Sigrid Nunez

(Virago; ₹599)

The American writer’s remarkable new collection brings together 13 stories written over more than three decades. Her characters are writers, mothers, daughters, siblings and solitary people, looking back at their lives and discovering that memory often preserves the oddest details while blurring the things that once seemed important. Nunez’s voice is conversational and funny, with an awareness of illness, ageing, regret and death, running just below the surface.

‘The Secret Eligibles of Mumbai’ | Anmol Malik

(HarperCollins India; ₹399)

In a buoyant, unabashedly filmi and gloriously maximalist Mumbai, the charming, rich and wily Dharam Ved is determined to woo Andie, the younger daughter of Prakash McMiller, who made his fortune making dustbins. But when Dharam finds himself repeatedly sparring with the furious yet funny older daughter, Iman, he is forced to reconsider his motives. Beneath the cheerful chaos of this rom-com lies a sharp understanding of how quickly money determines who is considered respectable or eligible.

‘Agrippa’ | Robert Harris

(Penguin; ₹999)

This is the story of Marcus Agrippa, the Roman soldier, strategist and builder who helped make Augustus Caesar’s rule possible, while largely remaining in the shadows. Harris gives him the floor, imagining the ageing general looking back on the friendship that determined his life. Battles, betrayals, marriages and political bargains arrive with the clean propulsion of a thriller, while Agrippa’s plain, soldierly voice keeps the spectacle human.

‘Dead but Dreaming of Electric Sheep’ | Paul Tremblay

(Bloomsbury; ₹1,634 [ebook])

In this dystopian horror novel, a man in a near-permanent coma is implanted with experimental technology that allows another person to control his muscles. Underemployed gamer Julia Flang is asked by her powerful tech executive mother to use a gaming console- of-sorts to move and guide the man across America. Tremblay turns this wonderfully grotesque premise into something funny, frightening and unexpectedly sad — raising important questions about bodily autonomy and artificial intelligence.

Country People | Daniel Mason

(Hachette India; ₹799)

When an academic accepts a year-long visiting professorship in Vermont, her family moves with her from California to live in a borrowed country house. As she heads to campus, her husband, Miles, contends with childcare and the home, not to mention his long-pending Ph.D thesis. The pleasure of this novel lies in watching this ordinary family gradually become tangled in folklore, conspiracy and the unseen world beneath the mountains.

(A monthly column on popular fiction.)

The writer is an independent journalist, editor, and literary curator.

Published - July 24, 2026 05:20 pm IST