A Bangalore police procedural featuring Inspector Borei Gowda, a splendidly grumpy, hard-drinking, deeply flawed character whose chaotic home life includes an absent wife, an estranged son and an enigmatic mistress. It all begins when elderly Professor Mudgood is murdered in his kitchen at 2 am on a November night. As Gowda investigates, he discovers that many people might have wanted the professor dead. He had been a vocal critic of the Hindutva Movement whose ethnic nationalism has gained traction recently, often at the expense of Islamic and Christian minorities. Also disturbing is the fact that the professor's extensive property in the centre of bustling Bangalore would be a gold mine in the hands of ruthless developers with access to corrupt politicians. And there is no shortage of such characters, even in the professor's immediate entourage. The fast-paced plot has many surprising twists leading to an ominous end, but police work is not just about going out and catching crooks. All kinds of office politics, caste politics and other considerations make Gowda's life complicated. Anita Nair lives in Bangalore, and her disclosure of Gowda's thoughts elsewhere in the series is telling: "This was a city where dog ate dog, rat devoured rat, and everyone would get ahead if they dismissed their conscience."

Chemmeen tells the story of the relationship between Karutthamma, a Hindu woman from the fisherfolk community, and Pareekkutty, the son of a Muslim fish wholesaler. Unable to marry Pareekkutty for religious reasons, Karutthamma instead marries Palani, who, despite his wife's scandalous past, never stops trusting her a trust that is reaffirmed each time he goes to sea and comes back safe. For the fishermen have an important saying: the safe return of a fisherman depends on the fidelity of his wife. Then, one fateful night, Karutthamma and Pareekkutty meet and their love is rekindled while Palani is at sea, baiting a shark. Previously available only in India, this hugely successful novel was adapted into a film, winning great critical acclaim and commercial success. Anita Nair's evocative translation from Malayalam brings this tale of love and longing, a classic of Indian literature, to a new audience.

How is twelve-year-old Nandita's disappearance connected to the murder of a well-known lawyer? What services has college student Rekha been persuaded to perform by her 'boyfriend'? Who is the mysterious crime lord lurking just out of sight? And who, just who, is Krishna?It begins as a search for a missing girl, but the case takes a more sinister turn when Inspector Gowda finds himself embroiled in Bangalore's child-trafficking racket. Negotiating insensitive laws, indifferent officials, uncooperative witnesses, not to mention wife, son and lover on the home front, Gowda must race against time to a finish line he can't yet see.

It is the first night of Ramadan. At Shivaji Nagar in the heart of Bangalore, a young male prostitute is killed and burnt alive. It would have stayed as yet another unsolved murder, but for Inspector Borei Gowda, the investigating officer. As bodies begin to pile up one after the other, and it becomes clear that a serial killer is on the prowl, Gowda recognizes a pattern in the killings which no one else does. Even as he negotiates serious mid-life blues, problems with his wife and son, an affair with an ex-girlfriend, and official apathy and ridicule, the killer moves in for the next victim...Steeped in the lanes and atmosphere of the city of Bangalore, A Cut- Like Wound introduces to the reader a host of unforgettable characters and is a brutal psychological thriller unlike any in world fiction.

Meera is happily submerged in the role of corporate wife and cookbook writer. Then, one day, her husband fails to come home. Overnight, Meera, disoriented and emotionally fragile, becomes responsible not just for her two children, but also her mother, grandmother and the running of Lilac House, their rambling old family home in Bangalore.

A few streets away, Professor J.A. Krishnamurthy or Jak, cyclone studies expert, has recently returned from Florida, to care for his nineteen-year-old daughter, the victim of a tragic accident. What happened on her holiday in a small beachside village? The police will not help, Smriti's friends have vanished, and a wall of silence and fear surrounds the incident. But Jak cannot rest until he gets to the truth.

Meera and of Jak's paths intertwine as they uncover the truth about the secrets of their pasts and the promise of the future. "The Lilac House "is a sweeping story of redemption, forgiveness and second chances.

From the quirky resonance of Malabar's names to the stressed drone of television newscasters during war time; from the apathy of non-stick frying pans to the quiet content of cows chewing cud, Anita Nair rakes through the everyday, pausing each time for an unusual moment. Love, failure, humor, irony, lust, hope, anguish; beaches, crows, bus journeys, hospitals, just about every aspect of the human existence finds place in this collection of poems written over a decade.

9-year old Siddhart is the despair of his parents. He does not want to play like a normal child. Then, one day, when he is sent out to the garden to try to play, he finally makes a friend - a fast talking, quick thinking, and ultra intelligent baby elephant Alise.

Tempestuously exotic, Nair's intricately woven multicultural and multigenerational saga pulsates with passion and desire." --"Booklist" "This intricately plotted novel by Nair (Ladies Coupe), her third to be published in the United States, blends myth, history, and human emotion into a mixture as sweet as the nectar of the jackfruit and as tangled as human behavior . . . Highly recommended." --"Library Journal," starred review When travel writer Christopher Stewart arrives at a riverside resort in Kerala, India to meet Koman, Radha's uncle and a famous dancer, he enters a world of masks and repressed emotions. From their first meeting, both Radha and her uncle are drawn to the enigmatic young man with his cello and his incessant questions about the past. The triangle quickly excludes Shyam, Radha's husband, who can only watch helplessly as she embraces Chris with a passion that he has never been able to draw from her. Also playing the role of observer-participant is Koman; his life story, as it unfolds, captures all the nuances and contradictions of the relationships being made--and unmade--in front of his eyes.

Meet Akhila: forty-five and single, an income-tax clerk, and a woman who has never been allowed to live her own life - always the daughter, the sister, the aunt, the provider - until the day she gets herself a one-way ticket to the seaside town of Kanyakumari. In the intimate atmosphere of the all-women sleeping car - the 'Ladies Coupe' - Akhila asks the five women the question that has been haunting her all her adult life: can a woman stay single and be happy, or does she need a man to feel complete?
This wonderfully atmospheric, deliciously warm novel takes the reader into the heart of women's lives in contemporary India, revealing how the dilemmas that women face in their relationships with hunsbands, mothers, friends, employers and children are the same world over.