1. Arundhati Roy:
Arundhati Roy is one of the most celebrated authors of India, best known for her novel ‘The God of Small Things’. The novel talks about how small things in life can affect people. The novel won the 1997 Booker Prize for fiction and it was one of the bestselling books at that time. Roy was awarded the Sahitya Academy Award in 2006, for her collection of essays, ‘The Algebra of Infinite Justice’ but she refused to accept it.
2. Anita Desai:
She is one of the most reputed writers of India and was nominated for the Booker Prize at least three times. She was awarded the prestigious Sahitya Academy Award in 1978 for her novel ‘Fire on the Mountain’ and the Padma Bhushan in 2014 for her contribution to Indian Literature. Her stories have an exemplary implication that strikes the human heart besides being humorous at the same time. The author has also won the British Guardian Prize for her novel, ‘The Village by the Sea’.
3. Jhumpa Lahiri:
Lahiri has gained international acclaim for her writing which mostly deals with NRI characters, immigrant issues and problems people face in foreign lands. Her pen touches the soul with her simple and metaphorical writing focusing on the day to day nuances and the hidden dramas in every person’s life. In 2006, Mira Nair directed a film based on her first novel ‘The Namesake’. Her book ‘The Lowland’ was a nominee for the 2013 Man Booker Prize and the National Book Award for Fiction.
4. Kiran Desai:
She is known for her book ‘The Inheritance of Loss’, which talks about the pain of migration and living between the two separate nations. She touches the readers’ heart via her writings especially when it comes to ‘Make it In America’.
5. Shashi Deshpande:
Shashi Deshpande is an award winning Indian novelist best known for her book ‘That Long Silence’. She won the Sahitya Akademi Award for the novel ‘That Long Silence’ in 1990 and the Padma Shri award in 2009.