A Selection Of Queer South Asian Fiction
It’s pride month, so we decided it was time to curate a selection of LGBTQ+ and adjacent titles from South Asia. From memoirs to fiction to cultural analyses to graphic novels, the number of books that explore topics once considered taboo are growing, so we decided to begin with a curation of fiction titles before moving on to other categories later this month. Without further ado, here’s a reading list of novels that can help you embrace diversity and open your mind.
The Buddha of Suburbia - Hanif Kureishi, 1990
This seminal work by Hanif Kureishi, British novelist of South Asian descent, follows Karim Amir, who lives with his English mother and Indian father in the comfort of suburban London, enduring his teenage years with good humour, while always being on the lookout for adventure and sexual possibilities. When his father becomes the Buddha of Suburbia, attracting a circle of would-be mystics and falling in love with one of his disciples, Eva, Karim is introduced to a world of rebellious theatre director, punk rock stars, fancy parties and all the sex a young man could want. A high-spirited comedy of sexual manners and social turmoil, The Buddha of Suburbia has been reclassified as a queer book because of the shifting identity of its protagonist.
Funny Boy - Shyam Selvadurai, 1994
Following a large, affluent Tamil family in Colombo, Shyam Selvadurai’s debut novel is an exploration of a boy coming to terms with his homosexuality in the midst of a civil war that is tearing Sri Lanka apart. Selvadurai is a Sri Lankan writer who lives in Canada, and his debut was a masterful mix of personal and political which paved the way for many other queer South Asian stories over the years.
Kari - Amruta Patil, 2008
They were inseparable – until the day they jumped. Ruth, saved by safety nets, leaves the city. Kari, saved by a sewer, crawls back into the fray of the living. She writes ad copy for hair products and ill-fitting lingerie, falls for cats and roadside urchins, and the occasional adventure in a restaurant. As Danger Chhori, her PVC-suit-clad alter ego, she unclogs sewers and observes the secret lives of people and fruit. And with Angel, Lazarus, and the girls of Crystal Palace forming the chorus to her song, she explores the dark heart of Smog City – loneliness, sewers, sleeper success, death – and the memory of her absent Other. Sensuously illustrated and livened by wry commentaries on life and love, Kari is a huge achievement and a big step for graphic fiction in India.
Cobalt Blue - Sachin Kundalkar (translated by Jerry Pinto), 2013
Cobalt Blue is both typical and not in its portrayal of love, loss and longing- the holy trinity of the romance of life. It follows Tanay and Anuja, part of an average Indian family of five in a Maharashtrian town, and an unnamed paying guest who enters their life and turns it upside down. Aseem, their elder brother, is unaffected by his arrival, but both Tanay and Anuja fall in love with this elusive guest, who reciprocates in differing ways, with neither sibling emerging as the same person. Tanay’s narrative is an imaginary, emotionally intense dialogue between an “I” and a “you.” Anuja’s narrative consists of diary entries where she tries to reconstruct her life after her lover leaves her. What unites these two narratives, which often show us the same events from different perspectives, is the polyvalent use of blue.
She Of The Mountains - Vivek Shraya, 2014
She of the Mountains is a beautifully rendered illustrated novel by Vivek Shraya, the author of the Lambda Literary Award finalist God Loves Hair. Shraya weaves a passionate, contemporary love story between a man and his body, with a re-imagining of Hindu mythology. Both narratives explore the complexities of embodiment and the damaging effects that policing gender and sexuality can have on the human heart.
The Carpet Weaver - Nemat Sedat, 2019
This novel is set in Afghanistan in 1977 where Kanishka Nurzada, the son of a leading carpet seller, falls in love with his friend Maihan, with whom he shares his first kiss at the age of sixteen. Their romance needs to be kept secret in a nation where the death penalty is meted out for kuni, a derogatory term for gay men. And, as the war besieges Afghanistan, it brings even greater challenges and danger for the two lovers. The Carpet Weaver is a powerful tale of a young, Muslim gay man’s struggle to come of age and find love in the face of brutal persecution.
When We Were Sisters - Fatima Asghar, 2022
In this debut work of fiction, Fatima Asghar traces the intense bond of three orphaned siblings who, after their parents die, are left to raise one another. The youngest grapples with the loss of her parents as she also embarks on her own understanding of gender; the middle sister spars with her younger sister as she desperately tries to hold onto a sense of her family in an impossible situations and the elder tries her best to play the role of a sister-mother, while also trying to create a life for herself. This debut novel tenderly examines the bonds and ruptures of sisterhood in the lives of three Muslim American girls alone against the world.
Other Names for Love - Taymour Soomro, 2022
A charged, hypnotic tale that has gained many plaudits over the past year, Taymour Soomro’s debut novel is a coming of age story set between Pakistan and the diaspora, a tale of forbidden desire, masculinity, tradition, and much more which explores, amongst other things, the difficulty of desire. It’s a book that explores the various aspects of identity and the struggle between who we are, who we want to be and where we can be free.