When former US President Barack Obama shared his widely-popular reading list on Facebook in 2018, he mentioned Immigrant, Montana (published in India as The Lovers), in his year-end list of favourites. Kumar’s acclaimed book Immigrant, Montana follows the journey of a man in search of love and explores the cultural misunderstandings that often arise between men and women.
We asked Kumar, who is also a professor of English at Vassar College in upstate New York, USA, to share his favourite reads with us. From tender tales on love written by Anton Chekhov to the beautiful prose of Light Years by James Salter, if you are looking to escape the grubby, heartbreaking realities through novels on love and romance then here’s a list that he recommends will be useful.
Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage by Alice Munro
This is a collection of stories that achieves new heights and narratives with nuanced characters that seem deeply embedded in reality.
The Lady With the Dog by Anton Chekhov
First published in 1899, the book delves into an adulterous affair between Dmitri Dmitritch Gurov, an unhappily married Moscow banker, and Anna Sergeyevna Von Diderits, a young married woman. The brutal affair between the two of them begins while both are vacationing alone in a sea resort of Yalta.
The Lover by Marguerite Duras
Set against the backdrop of French colonial Vietnam, The Lover is an autobiographical novel by Marguerite Duras, published in 1984. It has been translated to 43 languages and was awarded the 1984 Prix Goncourt.
Light Years by James Salter
This exquisite novel by James Salter is a brilliant portrait of a marriage that’s falling apart.
White Teeth by Zadie Smith
In this book, British author Zadie Smith focuses on the lives of two wartime friends—the Bangladeshi Samad Iqbal and the Englishman Archie Jones—and their families in London.
Amitava Kumar previously shared this reading list with Literary Hub.
