#FabReads: 5 Indian authors you need to bookmark for September

There’s nothing quite like getting lost in a good book that compels you to ditch the countless notifications on your phone and opt out of scrolling mindlessly through your social feed. Bonus: It’s a great exercise for your overactive and often over stimulated brain too! According to research published by National Centre for Biotechnology, reading involves complex network of circuits and signals in the brain that make them strong and sophisticated over time.

Whether you are on a vacation, taking a solo flight out, or need good old ‘lit’-my-brain-time, allow a great read to wire your brain to expand in the best way possible. Setting you up for a September you will remember for all the write reasons, here are our recommendations by some amazing Indian authors that will be hard to put down!
 

Free Fall: My Experiments With Living by Mallika Sarabhai

Feisty and fearless Mallika Sarabhai, bares-it-all in the frank portrayal of her extraordinary life as an acclaimed dancer, activist, and actor. She is undaunted speaking of her “thirty-year obsession with being thin”, her addiction to smoking, and fascination with alternate therapies, along with beauty treatments that would help ‘future-proof’ her body. Interspersed with earthy wisdom, the memoir is never preachy and makes for a soulful read. 
 

The Wait And Other Stories by Damodar Mauzo, translated by Xavier Cota

Jnanpith award-winning Konkani writer Damodar Mauzo creates a world far removed from the sun, sand, and idyllic holiday resort vibe synonymous with Goa. Instead, you meet villagers who face tough moral choices, men and women who dwell on remorse. Mauzo probes the deepest corners of human psyche with a tongue-in-cheek humour that makes for an easy read while being layered in nuances. 
 

In The Language Of Remembering: The Inheritance Of Partition by Aanchal Malhotra

With this book, oral historian Aanchal Malhotra explores past and present legacies of the partition, threaded into everyday lives of subsequent generations. Memories are preserved and often intimately and sincerely shared, with the oldest interviewees being in their nineties. 
 

The Living Mountain by Amitav Ghosh

Narrated as a dream, the book is a fable about Mahaprabhat, the living mountain which is home to indigenous valley dwellers who live off its bounty, invariably exploiting it in the process. It holds up a mirror asking tough questions, while urging you to negotiate answers that will force you to make sustainable choices. 

The Newly Weds by Mansi Choksi

A literary investigation that looks at a transitioning India teeming with a population that is well-versed in the many streams of globalised pop culture, the book explores love and orthodoxy of traditions. It follows the lives of three young couples who traverse patriarchal tropes in the pursuit of love. At times triumphant, at times challenging, their trials and tribulations, make The Newly Weds an immersive pick.