Who is the author of 'A Suitable Boy'?

"A Suitable Boy" is a novel by Vikram Seth, published in 1993. With about 1,349 pages and nearly 600,000 words, it is one of the longest novels ever published in English in a single volume.

About the novel:

It is set in newly independent India in the early 1950s, mainly in the fictional town of Brahmpur on the Ganga, and in Calcutta, Delhi and Lucknow.

The main story follows Mrs. Rupa Mehra's search for a "suitable boy" to marry her younger daughter, Lata. Lata has three suitors: Kabir, a Muslim student; Amit Chatterji, a poet; and Haresh Khanna, a shoe-company executive.

Around this story, the novel shows the life of four families and India's politics after independence, including land reforms (the abolition of zamindari), the first general election of 1951-52, and Hindu-Muslim relations.

In 2020, it was adapted into a BBC television series directed by Mira Nair.

About Vikram Seth:

• He was born in 1952 in Calcutta (Kolkata).
• He studied at Doon School, Oxford, Stanford and Nanjing University.

His works include:

• "From Heaven Lake" (1983), a travel book about hitch-hiking through Tibet and China.
• "The Golden Gate" (1986), a novel written entirely in rhyming sonnet stanzas, set in San Francisco; it won the Sahitya Akademi Award (1988).
• "An Equal Music" (1999), about a violinist.
• "Two Lives" (2005), a biography of his great-uncle and great-aunt.
• "Beastly Tales from Here and There", a collection of animal fables in verse.
• He received the Padma Shri in 2007.
• His mother, Leila Seth, was the first woman Chief Justice of a High Court in India (Himachal Pradesh, 1991).

Other major Indian English novels:

• Amitav Ghosh: "The Shadow Lines", "The Hungry Tide".
• Rohinton Mistry: "A Fine Balance", "Such a Long Journey".
• Upamanyu Chatterjee: "English, August".

Why not the other options?

• ✗Amitav Ghosh wrote "The Shadow Lines" and the "Ibis Trilogy".
• ✗Rohinton Mistry wrote "A Fine Balance".
• ✗Upamanyu Chatterjee wrote "English, August".