? Heat and Dust

[Photo/China Daily]

Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (1975)

In this compelling novel by the only person to have won both the Booker Prize and an Oscar, a woman travels to India to learn the truth about her step-grandmother and her life under the British raj of the 1920s.

? All About H. Hatterr

[Photo/China Daily]

G.V. Desani (1948)

It's the glorious mash-up of English and Indian colloquialisms that makes this book, about the son of a European merchant and a Malayan lady, such a wild, whimsical delight.