"Train to Pakistan" by Khushwant Singh
This is quite a short novel, about 200 pages, and is known as a classic about the "Partition" in India in 1947. I am so impressed with him as a writer....wonderful descriptions and even humour. He focuses on a small town where Muslims and Sikhs are living peacefully. By taking a smaller view of ordinary people, we do get an amazing sense of the issues somehow. Everyone comes in for gentle perceptive criticism and a most unlikely hero evolves.
And it was an absolute delight to read it in this special Penguin edition. Penguin Books India in 2012 republished 25 of its best-loved titles as Popular Penguins on its 25th birthday. We bought it at a library book nook of course. It is all the much more special since this edition is not available in the US.
