Top 5 Indian Authors & Their Bestsellers In 2023

It's 2023 and the Indian literary landscape is flourishing. The world of books is abuzz with the amazing works of some of the country's most talented authors. In this article, we'll take a look at the top five Indian authors of the year and their bestselling works.

1. Chetan Bhagat

The name Chetan Bhagat is widely known and admired in India. Since the beginning of his career, he has gained a reputation as a talented and successful writer. With book after book becoming a bestseller, he has demonstrated his skills as a great storyteller. He was featured on the Time Magazine's list of the World's 100 Most Influential People in 2010. Born on April 22, 1974, as the son of an army officer, he attended Army Public School and obtained a Bachelor of Technology in Mechanical Engineering from IIT Delhi.

His interest in writing began in fifth grade when he was asked to compose something for the school magazine. This passion kept growing and he eventually received a Master of Business Administration from IIM Ahmedabad.

Novels

• Five Point Someone (2004)
• One Night & the Call Centre (2005)
• The 3 Mistakes of My Life (2008)
• 2 States (2009)
• Revolution 2020 (2011)
• Half Girlfriend (2014)
• One Indian Girl (2014)
• The Girl in Room 105 (2018)

Non- Fiction

• What Young India Wants (2012)
• Making Indian Awesome (2015)
• India Positive (2019)

2. Rabindranath Tagore

Rabindranath Tagore, also known as Bhanu Singha Thakur, was an acclaimed Bengali poet, author, musician, and painter. He made history as the first person outside of Europe to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913. His spiritual and creative writing moved many hearts and his poetic verses and stories were not widely known outside of Bengal. On May 7th 1861, Tagore was born in Calcutta as the youngest of thirteen children.

He was a nomad who preferred to learn by experiencing the world instead of reading books, and so he had a strong distaste for formal education. He was profoundly influenced by the Golden Temple, writing six poems and numerous articles in a Bengali children's magazine about Sikhism. In the late 1870's, he returned to India, publishing several volumes of poetry in the 1880s and many other books that were widely praised.

Drama

• Valmiki Pratibha (1881)
• Dak Ghar (1912)
• Achalayatan (1912)
• Muktadhara (1922)
• Raktakarabi (1926)
• Chandalika (1933)

Short Stories

• Galpaguchchha (1914-1917) (Three Volume)
• Kshudita Pashan (1895)
• Atithi (1895)

Novels

• The Cabulliwalah (1892)
• The Kingdom of Cards (1910)
• Gora (1910)

3. Shashi Tharoor

Dr. Shashi Tharoor is an acclaimed writer with fifteen published books of both fiction and non-fiction. His credentials are impressive, having been an Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations, Minister of State for Human Resource Development as well as Minister of State for External Affairs of the Indian government. He was born in London, England to an Indian family and later returned to India. He studied at Delhi University and was the youngest person to attain a PhD from Tufts University in Massachusetts.

Fiction

• The Great Indian Novel (1989)
• The Five Dollar Smile and Other Stories (1990)
• Show Business (1992)
• Riot (2001)

Non-Fiction

• Pax Indica: India and the World of the 21st century (2012)
• India: The Future is Now (2013)
• India Shashtra: Reflections on the Nation in our Time (2015)
• An Era of Darkness (The British Empire in India) (2016)
• Why Am I a Hindu (2018)
• The Paradoxical Prime Minister (2018)
• The Hindu Way (2019)
• The New World Disorder and The Indian Imperative (2020)

4. Khushwant Singh

Khushwant Singh, an extremely famous writer, was born in 1915 in Hadali, which is now in Pakistan. He received his education from Government College Lahore, King’s College at Cambridge University, and the Inner Temple in London. He practiced law at the Lahore High Court for many years until he joined the Indian Ministry of External Affairs in 1947. After working with the Department of Mass Communication of UNESCO in Paris and as a journalist in All Radio in 1951, he decided to make writing his profession. Singh was well-known for his strong secularism, wittiness, satire, and admiration for poetry.

Bestsellers

• The Good, The Bad and The Ridiculous (2013)
• The Portrait of A Lady: Collected Stories (2013)
• The Sunset Club (2010)
• Death at My Doorstep (2005)
• I Shall Not Hear the Nightingale (1959)
• Train to Pakistan (1956)

5. R.K Narayan

Rasipuram Krishnaswami Narayanswami, also known as R.K Narayan, was an Indian writer who was popular for his stories set in Malgudi, a town in the south of India. His works were a major part of the early literature written in English by Indian authors. He was born on the 10th of October 1906 in Madras and after completing his education in 1930, he worked as a teacher before dedicating himself fully to writing. His first published work was a review of the Development of Maritime Laws of 17th century England. In 1930, he wrote his first novel and kept on writing until the day he died, a testament to his passion for writing.

Bestsellers

• The English Teacher (1945)
• Waitin for the Mahatma (1955)
• The Man-Eater of Malgudi (1961)
• The Vendor of Sweets (1967)
• A Tiger for Malgudi (1983)

Short Stories

• Lawley Road (1983)
• Under the Banyan Tree and Other Stories (1985)
• The Grandmother’s Tale (1993)
• The Ramayana (1972)
• The Mahabharata (1978)