Bazaar editor-approved Indian anthologies that'll get you reading again

You know the feeling—you want to read, you really do, but every time you open a book, your brain short-circuits and suddenly you’re scrolling again. Enter the short story collection: bite-sized brilliance that asks for just a little of your attention and gives a whole lot back. Whether you’ve been in a reading slump for weeks or just can’t commit to a 400-page novel right now, these anthologies and collections are proof that small can still be mighty.

Here are six collections that get it right. Quietly devastating, often oddly funny, and always observant, they sit in life’s in-betweens—the pauses, the contradictions, the half-said things that feel more honest than clarity ever could.

Almost Perfect, but Mostly Not by Vasudha Sahgal

Vasudha Sahgal’s debut is about people in motion—emotionally, geographically, existentially. Set across familiar markers (bookstores, sexuality, breakups, slightly stale marriages), these stories are less about resolution and more about what you realise just before. The tone is casual and very readable but precise, like someone telling you something important without quite looking up from their coffee. There’s a sharpness beneath the stillness—a quiet knowing that stays with you even after the story ends.

Boats on Land by Janice Pariat

Spanning pre- and post-colonial Northeast India, the stories in this collection blend folklore with lived memory. They feel textured, like moss on a wall you pass every day, or a story your grandmother tells that somehow feels more personal than historical. There’s magic here, but it’s subtle and deeply local—anchored in place, in weather, in childhoods half-remembered. Pariat’s prose carries a strange grace, like she’s writing from the edge of a fog you can almost—but never quite—see through.

Small Days and Nights by Tishani Doshi

Technically a novel, but structured with the rhythm of short fiction, this book sits in long stretches of quiet. It follows Grace, who moves back to coastal Tamil Nadu after her mother’s death and discovers a sister she didn’t know she had.
Doshi writes about solitude with a kind of bone-deep honesty. Her characters aren’t searching for meaning so much as space—to breathe, to think, to be. It’s a story told in shadows, in silences, in the things people don’t quite say.

Blue is Like Blue by Vinod Kumar Shukla (translated by Arvind Krishna Mehrotra and Sara Rai)

These stories are short—even by short story standards—but they hold their own kind of weight. Shukla is interested in the minor absurdities of everyday life: borrowed objects, half-sincere observations, quiet epiphanies. What feels like whimsy at first often reveals itself as quietly profound. There’s a kind of defiant stillness here, a belief in the poetry of dust motes and daydreams. It’s a book that rewards your slowness.

Arranged Marriage by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

A cult classic for a reason, this collection looks at women navigating new geographies—both literal and emotional. The stories are anchored in the experience of Indian immigrants, but the themes—loneliness, expectation, fractured intimacy—aren’t trying to be universal, they just are. There’s warmth, but there’s also restraint. Divakaruni is particularly good at the quiet heartbreak of wanting more and not being sure if you’re allowed to ask. These stories ache, but gently, and they stay with you long after you've finished turning that last page.

The Wise Woman and Other Stories – Mannu Bhandari (translated by Vidya Pradhan)

Mannu Bhandari wrote about women when few others did—with realism, not reverence. These stories, originally in Hindi, explore emotional labour, compromise, and the quiet calculations of domestic life. The beauty lies in how ordinary it all feels yet how radical it all is. The translation does justice to her clarity, and the stories feel startlingly current. These aren’t the kind of stories you underline aggressively or post quotes from. They just sit there—simple, self-assured—and wait for you to catch up. Which, honestly, is the best kind of writing to get you back into reading.

 

Lead image: Unsplash

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