I read many wonderful books last year. Among the backlisted titles, I fell in love with The Secret History by Donna Tartt (and wrote a cheeky post). I promptly picked it up for a re-read in the new year (currently savouring it). As is customary, in mid-2020, I rounded up a few excellent books—published in 2020—that I loved in the first half of the year. Looking back, I think my favourites would be If I Had your Face by Frances Cha for its character-driven slice-of-life narrative set in Seoul, Sisters by Daisy Johnson for the creepy, suffocating memories I have of reading it and Luster by Raven Leilani, which is a brilliant debut that smacks you on your face. If I am being really picky, those would be my top three best books of 2020, among what I read in the first half of 2020.
Best Books of 2020 (Part 2)
And that brings us to Part 2 of Best Books of 2020. I enjoyed some old titles too in the second half of 2020, the most memorable being Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca that consumed my soul and resulted in a heavily annotated book at the end of the read. Here I have listed the newer releases that lingered in my mind. Read for a literary thriller, books that wreck your soul and Twitter shenanigans turning into love.
1. Girl Made of Gold by Gitanjali Kolanad
I adored this book! It is short, yet each sentence is measured, and intentional, like a perfect necklace made by a renowned jeweller. I feel thrilled when I come across books as this, that pay great attention to the craft of writing, and are also edited with absolute precision.
The novel is set in 1920s Thanjavur when a devdasi goes missing and a golden statue—that the villagers believe to be her—mysteriously appears at the temple. The literary mystery reads as if it begins on the fringes of a forest, and then sucks you in completely as you get closer to the core. Highly recommended.
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2. Name Place Animal Thing by Daribha Lyndem
This coming of age story set in Shillong follows a young Khasi girl. It explores racial discrimination, insurgency, religion and the Revival of 2006. There are butterflies bottled in Horlicks jars, winters warmed by feasting on guava jelly and plums, holidays spent reading library books (mills and Boons, Nancy Drew). Name Place Animal Thing has a quaint nostalgic quality to its prose—you’ll feel right at home even if you have never visited Shillong. I’ve been pushing this book into the hands of everybody who asked me for a new recommendation.
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3. The Lying Life of Adults by Elena Ferrante, translated by Ann Goldstein
After I read this book, I thought it pierced my soul, deep deep deep. Months later, I have no better words to describe the book. The Lying Life of Adults is a coming of age story set in the messy world of adult relationships. There are mistresses who adopt families of their lover, legs that betray secrets under the dining table, confused young love, and lies.
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4. Women Dreaming, translated by Meena Kandasamy, The Curse, translated by N. Kalyan Raman; both written by Salma
I read two books by Salma in 2020 and I thought they both were excellent. In Women Dreaming, translated by Meena Kandasamy, we follows three generations of women in a rural Muslim household in Tamil Nadu, navigating patriarchal traditions, second marriages, sex and desire, the right to education, religious limitations and societal expectations. The prose is sharp, taut, and cuts you. The Curse, translated by N. Kalyan Raman is a collection of short stories about Muslim women—some are scared to sleep at night, some do not have access to good toilets, some love watching TV. The stories made me stop to catch my breath, some made me weep.
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5. Delhi : A Soliloquy by M. Mukundan, translated by Fathima E. V. and Nandakumar K
I read Delhi over a weekend and it completely wrecked me. This historical novel follows the life of Malayali immigrants—as well as immigrants from other states—who find a home in Delhi, told over four decades. This is an emotionally intense read about wars with neighbouring countries, Emergency, religious intolerance, communal riots, destruction of property and livelihood, all of which eerily seem similar to present day scenario. Delhi is dense, yet filled with characters that are bustling with life, that you just cannot stop reading.
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7. The Women who Forgot to Invent Facebook by Nisha Susan
What I love best about Nisha Susan’s stories are how inventive, unique and fresh they are. No stale stories of women pining over a man, or the don’t-care heroine. The women in Susan’s stories feel real. They are loud, foul mouthed, vulnerable and do all sorts of things, like making sex maps or sexting with literary agents or hunting for internet relics of a first wife. Definitely one of the best books of 2020 (a short story collection too!)
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7. Tweet Cute by Emma Lord
You’ve Got Mail for the Twitter era. Need I say more? Tweet Cute was a much needed read after being in The Flatshare (excellent book btw) daze for a very very long time. This starry eyed YA romance was one of my best books of 2020. This is a high school enemies to lovers sandwiched within a secret chat friend to lovers trope. Pepper is a perfectionist, great swimmer, excellent baker and runs the social media handle of her family’s business, Big League Burgers. Jack is the nonsensical classmate who takes to Twitter when the Big League Burger chain steals his grandma’s iconic grilled cheese recipe. Retweets, memes, snarky comebacks—before they know it, the world is shipping these two rival social media managers in all their viral glory. Tweet Cute is too cute!
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8. Moustache by S. Hareesh, translated by Jayasree Kalathil
I did not expect to be stunned by this sprawling, non-linear narrative generously tempered with magical realism. I was under its spell, though I read it over many months. Moustache, translated from Malayalam, follows a lower caste man Vavachan who sports a moustache much to the disdain of the upper caste men, and then grows into a mythical figure fed by stories woven around him. As evident from its name, this is a masculine novel set deep in the male gaze. It shape-shifts quickly, from a socio-political story to a folklore in the oral tradition, to a gossip laden tale, with innumerable characters including guilty sardines, the last crocodile, lily trotting jacunas, buffalo meat loving domestic abuser, sex workers, a gun wielding sahib, a hungry ghost, vengeful mushrooms, harvest singers and the God of Death (Kaalan) himself.
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9. Hellfire by Leesa Gazi, translated by Shabnam Nadiya
Hellfire is the most shocking novel I read last year. It follows a toxic household where an over-possessive, controlling mother does not allow her daughters to leave the house alone. Or even go to the terrace without permission. The daughters being thirty seven and forty years old. I can still feel the chill which went down my spine as I read about forty year old Lovely’s first trip to the market, alone. The premise was unlike anything I’ve read, and it crushed me because such living arrangements do exist.
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10. Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert
Chronically ill, computer geek Chloe Brown has a bucket list. She doesn’t like Red, the handyman in her new apartment. Red gets on her nerves everytime, but he seems to be a talented secret painter (paints shirtless by the window of course), cat-lover, and might be her chance to tick off everything on the bucket list. Chloe is wonderful and Red is an absolute darling. I loved cheering their romance. So yes, Chloe Brown deserves the hype.
PS: I read the other two books of the Brown sisters, but Get a Life, Chloe Brown remains my favourite. I enjoyed all three.
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I recently read Get a Life, Chloe Brown and enjoyed too. I’m not big on the enemies to lovers trope, but it worked for me in that story. I added Hellfire to my TBR and Moustache as well, although I thought I’d added it before.
I hope you enjoy them! I think what works really well in the Chloe Brown book is how Hibbert really takes us deep into how the characters feel. They seem real which makes it not another flat-story
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