I have a problem picking up big books. It’s not that they feel intimidating but I can’t carry them around and I like having books I’m reading with me wherever I go. That way, I can read a few pages at work, during breaks, or when I’m commuting. But there have been many novels that are over 500 pages or so that I’ve really wanted to read. At times like those, what I’ve done is picked up a slim volume along with the heavier one. I’ll carry the lighter book to work and read the bigger one at home. This is how I have managed to finish books ‘The Lord of the Rings’ trilogy by J.R.R Tolkien and ‘Jonathan Strange and Mr Norell’ by Susanna Clark, both of which are over a 1000 pages long. 

The beauty of long novels is that you get to stay in a particular world for longer and there is often great character development in the story as well. You get to know the characters properly and really start to care about them. Over the years, there are many long stories that I’ve enjoyed, including the two I’ve already mentioned. I look at their spines on my bookshelf and often find myself picking them up to read the passages I’ve marked, with highlighters, post-its, and even little scraps of papers. This week, I’m recommending three books that I find myself thinking about every now and then because of their sheer brilliance, hoping they bring you joy, comfort, and perspective. 

Tomb of Sand by Geetanjali Shree

I read ‘Tomb of Sand’ by Geetanjali Shree a few years ago after it had won the International Booker Prize in 2022. This book was originally written in Hindi in 2018 and translated into English. I started the book a few days before I was supposed to go on a vacation and instantly regretted it because I knew I couldn’t take it along. I usually prefer short stories or poems when traveling. I must have read about a 100 pages before I left and was completely captivated by the writing and the story. About an 80-year-old woman’s search for herself, after the death of her husband, Tomb of Sand pieces together her story through the eyes of her two children. It’s a story about family dynamics and aging that will make you think about life and how you can make the most of it. 

The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese 

I’m generally hesitant to read books that make it to Oprah’s Book Club as I think they mostly deal with rural American life and they are usually stories I don’t find to be very relatable. But I picked up ‘The Covenant of Water’ as a friend who is a voracious reader wrote a wonderful review about it on her blog and I was intrigued. I must confess that reading her review made me want to read the book and I bought the 700 odd pages paperback immediately. Set in Kerala, South India, The Covenant of water follows a 12-year-old girl at the turn of the 20th century from the time she weds a 40-year-old to becoming a matriarch of the family known as Big Ammachi. It’s full of tender moments, heartbreak, love, and loss. Oprah calls it one of the best books she’s read in her entire life.

A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth

Published in 1993 and over 1300 pages long, ‘A Suitable Boy’ is one of the longest books in English published in one volume. A mother-like figure who I loved and lost to cancer in 2009 recommended this book to me in the early 2000s. It was her favorite novel. She couldn’t stop gushing about it. She told me to read 50 pages every day and I’d be done in a month, she said. She even bought me a copy of the book. I never read it then. But when I lost her, I found myself trying different things to feel close to her and reading her favorite book seemed like a good idea. It took me almost six months to get through A Suitable Boy as I could only read a few pages every day but I loved everything about it. The plot is undoubtedly slow-paced as it follows four families in post-partition India as Mrs Rupa Mehra tries to find ‘a suitable boy’ for her 19-year-old daughter, Lata. Reading the book is like watching a drama unfold before your eyes.