Some of the most exciting Indian writing of recent years has reached English readers in translation. In 2022 and 2025, books translated from Indian languages won the International Booker Prize, and India’s own JCB Prize for Literature has repeatedly gone to translated fiction. Here are six books that are a good place to start.
1. Tomb of Sand, Geetanjali Shree (Hindi)
Translated by Daisy Rockwell and published by Tilted Axis Press, Tomb of Sand won the International Booker Prize in 2022, the first book originally written in an Indian language to do so. It follows an 80-year-old woman in northern India who, after a period of deep grief, takes an unexpected new turn in life. Playful with language, it is a novel to read slowly.
2. Heart Lamp, Banu Mushtaq (Kannada)
Translated by Deepa Bhasthi and published by And Other Stories, Heart Lamp won the International Booker Prize in 2025. Its 12 stories, written between 1990 and 2023, explore the everyday lives of women and girls in Muslim communities in southern India. It was the first short story collection to win the prize, and Bhasthi became the first Indian translator to win it.
3. Pyre, Perumal Murugan (Tamil)
Translated by Aniruddhan Vasudevan, Pyre was longlisted for the International Booker Prize in 2023. It is a tense, compact novel about a young couple who marry across caste lines and the hostility they face in a village. Murugan has said that reports of so-called honour killings compelled him to write it.
4. Jasmine Days, Benyamin (Malayalam)
Translated by Shahnaz Habib, Jasmine Days won the first JCB Prize for Literature in 2018. Set in an unnamed Middle Eastern city during a period of political upheaval, it is told by a young woman from a migrant family and explores loyalty, belonging and change.
5. Moustache, S. Hareesh (Malayalam)
Translated by Jayasree Kalathil, Moustache won the JCB Prize in 2020. Set in the backwaters of Kuttanad, it follows a Dalit man whose extraordinary moustache turns him into a figure of local legend, and it moves freely between realism and myth.
6. The Paradise of Food, Khalid Jawed (Urdu)
Translated by Baran Farooqi, The Paradise of Food won the JCB Prize in 2022. A dark, intense novel narrated by a man looking back on his life, it uses food, kitchens and the family home to explore memory, fear and the wider society around them.
Where to find them
All six are available in English from major booksellers in India and abroad, and most are stocked by public and university libraries. The Booker Prizes and JCB Prize websites also publish longlists every year, which are a good way to discover more translated fiction.
Sources
- The International Booker Prize 2025, The Booker Prizes
- The International Booker Prize 2022, The Booker Prizes
- Perumal Murugan’s Pyre longlisted for the International Booker, The Wire
- Perumal Murugan interview, The Booker Prizes
- JCB Prize for Literature
Lead photo: Ebahir / Pexels. Facts checked against the sources above in October 2026.
