November fiction: Festive days continue with these six recently published Indian novels

Interstellar Megachef, Lavanya Lakshminarayan

Stepping off a long-haul star freighter from Earth, Saras Kaveri has one bag of clothes, her little flying robot Kili…and an invitation to compete in the galaxy’s most watched, most prestigious cooking show. Interstellar MegaChef is the showcase of the planet Primus’s austere, carefully synthesised cuisine. No one from Earth – where they’re so incredibly primitive they still cook with fire – has ever graced its flowmetal cookstations before, or smiled awkwardly for its buzzing drone-cams. Until now.

Corporate prodigy Serenity Ko, inventor of the smash-hit sim SoundSpace, has just got messily drunk at a floating bar, narrowly escaped an angry mob and been put on two weeks’ mandatory leave to rest and get her work-life balance back. Perfect time to start a new project! And she’s got just the idea: a sim for food. Now she just needs someone to teach her how to cook.

A chance meeting in the back of a flying cab has Saras and Serenity Ko working together on a new technology that could change the future of food – and both their lives – forever…

Unmoored, Ramachandran Usha, translated from the Tamil by Krupa Ge

In Unmoored, Ramachandran Usha crafts an intimate exploration of migration and belonging. Three women – Ayesha, Indu, and Ameera – return to Chennai from the Gulf, each looking to reunite with the loved ones they left behind. Despite differences in religion, social status and age, they are also united in their quest for a true sense of home. Usha’s novella dwells on the seldom-told yet pervasive story of women who travel to the Middle East and beyond, driven by the need to secure their families’ futures.

The protagonists of the two short stories featured in this collection, “Khushka”, and “Success”, have much in common with the women of Unmoored, even as they grapple with crises of faith and finance.

You, M Mukundan, translated from the Malayalam by Nandakumar K

When 70-year-old Unnikrishnan calls a press conference to announce the date of his death, he is disappointed at the apathy with which the news is met. It has been many years since he fled his home and village, and nobody remembers the sensational success of his first novel, set in the time of the Malabar Rebellion of 1921, but he finds it hard to accept the utter lack of interest in his announcement or the reason for it. Until young Paru, a rookie journalist for the local daily, turns up on his doorstep, despatched by her editor to unearth what she can of his story.

What happened to drive Unnikrishnan away from his family and friends? What was he doing in those missing decades? And how is he going to meet his end – will he kill himself, and if so, how and why? These are the questions Paru puts to him over and over again, pleading, cajoling, threatening, but it will take a lot more to get the stubborn old man to reveal the truth. If he ever will.

Across the River, Bhaichand Patel

Seema Choudhry and Madhu Gupta, one Muslim, the other a Hindu, are the best of friends. Both live in Old Delhi, only a few dense, narrow lanes apart, but in worlds that rarely meet. And yet, the worlds are very similar in the demands they make of women, especially young women like Seema and Madhu – they should settle down soon after puberty, marry men of the same faith, caste and class, chosen by their elders. But in the early years of the 21st century, change is creeping in. When the two girls find employment in a factory in Noida, across the Yamuna, their worlds expand – a little at first, and then radically. Their lives will be transformed in unexpected ways by ambition and, in Seema’s case, by the love of the other – the son of her bigoted Hindu employer.

Blackened, Vinoy Thomas, translated from the Malayalam by Nandakumar K

The Adhikarathil family had a distinguished history. It prospered both in terms of wealth and eminence, acquiring the status of royalty in Malabar, Kerala, until the birth of a child named Eranimos shocked everyone. Unlike his fair-skinned, Christian forebears, Eranimos was born dark-skinned, leading to controversial conjectures about his lineage.

Blackened tells the story of its protagonist’s quest to discover the truth behind his dark skin and caste identity. But weaved into this personal tale are multiple layers of Kerala’s social and political histories – its caste conflicts, its massive waves of conversion and migration, its clashing belief systems, and its rural and urban divide.

Lucy and the Djinn, Pranoy Mathew

When Lucy David inherits a mysterious lamp from her late grandfather, she unwittingly releases Iblis, an ancient and powerful djinn. Trapped for centuries, Iblis offers Lucy three wishes in exchange for his freedom.

With each wish, Lucy peels back layers of her own history and the djinn’s tragic past, unfolding their intertwined destinies. As she delves into her past and confronts her troubled present, Lucy grapples with her failed relationships, addiction and her failed start-up dreams. Iblis too struggles with his own demons and the burden of immortality. As their connection deepens, Lucy must decide: will she use her final wish to free Iblis, or keep him by her side forever?

Information sourced from publishers.