Raghav Rao's Top 10 Favourite Books of all Time

The Snow Leopard, by Peter Mathiessen, Vintage Classics

Journeys, like books, present an external conflict, but are always about an internal one. Not long after losing his wife, the author embarked on a two-month journey in Tibet as part of an expedition to film the elusive snow leopard, but of course, as you’ve probably guessed, it’s about more than that.

The Collected Short Stories of Roald Dahl, Penguin Random House

There are few things we love more than a twist, and Dahl—known for his quirky, dark children’s fiction—is an exceptional crafter of a nasty twist. Spare, artfully constructed, and often cruelly funny, many of its stories are unforgettable guilty pleasures.

Beloved, by Toni Morrison, Vintage Books

Growing up, I read mostly Indian and British authors but Morrison captures the central fissure running through America, the painful, enduring, tormented legacy of the enslavement of countless people of African descent. A heartbreaking book whose lines float off the page into the soul.

The Legends of Khasak by O. V. Vijayan, Penguin

Lyrical, suffused with syncretic magic that is wholly Indian, Khasakkinte Ittihasam is dripping poetry in English, so how good must it be in Malayalam? Uniquely, the book has been translated by the author himself. I’ll take this book over any of its contemporaries, the great Latin American works of magical realism.

The Barn Owl’s Wondrous Capers by Sarnath Banerjee, Penguin Random House

This graphic novel occupies a shelf in my heart because, with school friends, I adapted and staged it as a play. Adapting a text allows for deeper intimacy; my copy is annotated to tatters; apocryphal moments, “the dark armpits of history”, are illuminated. This Kolkata story is for all urbanites—how we imbibe our cities in vignettes like little cups of chai.

A River Runs Through It by Norman Maclean, University of Chicago Press

A novella, written late in life, by a long-time professor of English, is a story of two brothers who grew up fly-fishing in Montana. It’s an important reminder that while, yes, representation certainly matters, words, artfully arranged, can bring meaning to anyone, even a young boy in India in a hot room under a non-functioning fan.

The Simoqin Prophecies by Samit Basu, Penguin Random House

The fantasy genre is replete with binaries but there’s nothing simple about this witty, gag-filled, spoofy fantasy. Twenty years after its original publication, it has lost none of its zip. In fact, its twists, values, flips and flops, are more glorious. If you haven’t, you must read about these asurs, pashans, vanars and manticores!

Born for Love by Dr Bruce Perry & Maia Szalavitz, William Morrow Paperbacks 

It’s not often that you can say a book changed your life. In this one, a renowned child psychiatrist and a journalist together examine the long-term effects of loving or withholding love from children. For me, it reframed our purpose on the planet and how best to allocate our time.

Remembrance of Earth’s Past, by Cixin Liu, Head of Zeus

This series imagines Earth’s response to encountering an alien civilization with such magnificent scope that only a great mind could even attempt such a thing. The result, for me, was a story that made me feel like a kid again, reading under the sheets with a torch until the batteries ran out. Whenever an outsider approaches, more than them, it’s the people around us that we learn about!

The Karla Trilogy by John Le Carré, Penguin Random House

These three exceptional novels are the work of the master of the spy novel at the height of his powers. Beyond the high-stakes games of nation states, inside each one of us, is an inner war. We fight ourselves as much as our enemies; I open it weekly and each time learn a new lesson.