If you loved The Safekeep, you will devour these 3 books
If you were captivated by The Safekeep, you are likely craving more books that plumb the depth of complicated familial relationships, queer desires and the heavy baggage of history. Here are three reads that share similar themes of intimacy, identity, and the weight of the past.
For readers who appreciated The Safekeep's exploration of personal and historical legacies, Martyr! offers a poetic dive into identity, addiction, and the search for meaning. Cyrus Shams, a recovering alcoholic and Iranian-American poet, grapples with grief, art, and the ghosts of his past. Akbar's prose is lush and philosophical, weaving together themes of queerness, what it means to be an immigrant , and self-destruction with raw honesty. Like The Safekeep, this novel balances intimacy with existential weight, making it a perfect follow-up.
A timeless classic that, much like The Safekeep, explores forbidden desire and the suffocating grip of societal expectations. Set in 1950s Paris, Baldwin's novel follows David, an American man torn between his engagement to a woman and his passionate affair with Giovanni, an Italian bartender. The tension between private longing and public performance is palpable as one grapples with the themes of secrecy, shame, and self-denial.
Treated with mythic grandeur, the The Song of Achilles has become a modern classic of LGBTQ+ literature. Miller, who studied classics, reimagines Homer's Iliad through the lens of Patroclus, an exiled prince who becomes Achilles' closest companion. The story traces their relationship from childhood friendship to passionate love. In the battle of Gods and demigods, the novel shows how the most profound wars are waged not with swords, but with hearts. The 3,000-year-old love story that reads as freshly urgent as any contemporary romance as the inevitable tragedy gains new power when seen through Patroclus' devoted eyes.
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Indian Express
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2 Kiran Desai novels to read while we wait for Booker-nominated ‘The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny'
Indian author Kiran Desai's upcoming novel, The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny, has made it to the 2025 Booker longlist. This is the second time that Desai's book has made it to the list; her previous 2006 novel, The Inheritance of Loss had won the Booker Prize. The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny, is set to release on September 25. The novel chronicles the story of two youngsters caught between continents, generations, and expectations. Their love story unfolds across India and the United States, tracing the invisible ties of family, tradition, and desire in a rapidly changing world. Her mother, Anita Desai, has also made it to the shortlist three times. As we await this long-anticipated new work from one of India's most acclaimed novelists, here are two of her earlier books: Kiran Desai's debut novel is a delightfully offbeat tale set in a sleepy Indian town. Sampath Chawla, a dreamy underachiever born during a drought, seeks solitude by climbing a guava tree. To his surprise, he is mistaken for a holy man, drawing worshippers, spies, and mischief-makers to his perch. Before he knows it, this transforms into a surreal spectacle involving a gang of thieving, drunken monkeys and a town descending into chaos. Desai blends magic realism with satire, capturing the absurdity of bureaucracy, the yearning for transcendence, and the strangeness of small-town life. Beneath its humour, the novel gently probes questions of identity, escape, and the line between wisdom and folly. Kiran Desai's second novel, written over seven years, won the 2006 Booker Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award among others. Set in 1986 against the backdrop of the Gorkhaland movement in northeastern India, the novel explores the dislocations of colonial legacy and globalisation. The story centers on two characters living vastly different but intertwined lives. Biju, the son of a cook, is an undocumented immigrant in the United States, drifting from one low-paying kitchen job to another. Sai, the anglicised granddaughter of a bitter retired judge, lives in Kalimpong with her grandfather Jemubhai Patel, the cook, and her dog, Mutt. Her parents, one Gujarati, the other a Zoroastrian orphan, are long gone, leaving her suspended between inherited privilege and rootlessness. The novel contrasts Biju's lonely struggle for dignity abroad with Sai's insulated existence and growing awareness of social fracture at home. Through its intimate portraits, The Inheritance of Loss lays bare the contradictions of postcolonial India where reverence for Western ideals coexists with resentment, and where no character, whether anglicised or traditional, is truly at ease in the world they inhabit.
News18
a day ago
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Drake Reveals Where His Son Was Conceived: 'There Would Be No Adonis If...'
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Indian Express
a day ago
- Indian Express
As Kiran Desai eyes a second Booker, we remember 3 times her mother Anita Desai made it to the shortlist
Indian-origin author Kiran Desai's long-awaited new novel The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny has made it to the 2025 Booker Prize longlist. Kiran, who won the Booker in 2006 for The Inheritance of Loss, follows in the footsteps of her mother, Anita Desai, who was shortlisted for the Booker not once, but three times. Here is a look at the trio of novels that brought Anita Desai to the cusp of the UK's most prestigious literary prize: In her Booker debut, Desai delivered a storm of a novel, Clear Light of Day (Heinemann), which explores the unspoken tensions of a family gathered in their ancestral home. The story orbits around Tara, who returns to her childhood house only to find time and memory interweaving in disorienting ways. Desai's elegant prose lays bare the emotional sediment of the past, while capturing post-Partition India with poignant subtlety. Critics hailed it as a masterclass in psychological realism, earning Desai her first Booker nod and establishing her as an essential voice in postcolonial literature. Desai's second Booker shortlisting came with In Custody (Heinemann), a wry, tragicomic look at a failed poet and a failing language. Deven, a timid Hindi professor, dreams of literary greatness through an interview with Urdu's greatest living poet, Nur. What unfolds is a series of frustrations, miscommunications, and the slow decay of idealism. Desai's portrayal of linguistic extinction and cultural compromise, rendered with ironic humor and deep empathy, proved once again her unmatched insight into India's shifting identity. The novel was later adapted into a film by Merchant Ivory Productions. With Fasting, Feasting (Chatto & Windus), Desai returned to the Booker shortlist after a 15-year gap. The novel follows the contrasting lives of two siblings. Uma, who remains trapped in her Indian family home, and Arun, who is sent to the US in search of opportunity, but finds a different kind of emptiness. In around 250 pages, Desai crafts a rich cross-cultural narrative that probes family obligations, gender roles, and consumerism. Her subtle, restrained storytelling reveals emotional repression on both sides of the globe. Anita Desai never claimed the Booker herself, but her triple shortlistings stand as a remarkable achievement in the prize's history.
