Though I mostly picked books centered around Calcutta, these are my recommendations for all things Bengal, including many Bengali language stories I read set in rural Bengal. For both fiction and non-fiction, the state is a goldmine, with Bengali literature being among India's finest and Calcutta is possibly India’s best city when it comes to books. My limited reading hardly scratched the surface and my recommendations should be seen as a mere starting point. Please share with me your recommendations! I also encourage everyone to check out my recommendations for Bengali films and other films set in the region, as well as my post on Bengali music.
My first section is on non-fiction books, mostly about Calcutta, the second section is on Bengali literature, and the third section is on English books set in Calcutta.
Non-Fiction
Beginning with non-fiction, I read a great history book on the city called Calcutta: A Cultural And Literary History by Krishna Dutta. I wish more cities had books this good. It’s short and to the point without feeling flimsy and frivolous, and I like how it is written in a way that is personal and opinionated and not academic while also staying on topic and not going into the writer’s own life. It is full of great detail on the city’s history and culture, and there’s something interesting in probably every paragraph. It’s great for a trip as you can pick up and read it easily, as much as you want in a given sitting, rather than something you need the time and space to delve into, and you can skip ahead to a part about a part of the city you’re visiting or anything you’re interested in learning. I almost always wanted more detail, but I still always got a lot out of it, and there were occasionally sections where I could have done with less info (say, a certain type of architecture or the excerpts from contemporary literature) but the way the book is structured keeps it moving quickly and the clearly delineated sections mean you can easily skip ahead without missing anything you care about. A great introduction to the city and I think it would also be valuable to the average person who lives there.
I also read Epic City by Kushanava Choudhury, which I enjoyed, though it’s more memoirish and less informational than I would have liked, and many parts felt like they could have taken place anywhere in India (the house hunting journey, the difficulties of young couples finding private spaces, etc). It’s all good though, a fun and short read, and much of it is specific to the city (his stories of working at the Statesman, interviewing communists, and just walking through old neighborhoods and talking to people), and it brought me closer to the city and Bengali culture. I also liked his musings on the value of living in a deeply rooted place like Calcutta compared to living in the U.S. It’s no Maximum City (the burden of expectations from the William Dalrymple quote on the cover does it no favors), but I recommend it. As I said, I prefer reading more informational books, but it was good to balance that with something more personal. One of my favorite parts, and I think a good look at what you’re in for: “Stop and ask for directions in Delhi and no one knows, because no one is truly of the city. Ask for directions on any Calcutta street corner and a half-dozen mustachioed men will appear out of nowhere. They may offer radically divergent views on the matter, a street fight may break out as a result, rival political camps may emerge, and traffic may be barricaded for the rest of the afternoon. But it is their city, their streets, their neighbourhoods.”
There are countless other non-fiction books on Calcutta I want to read. Countless! My list includes The Bengalis by Sudeep Chakravarti, Longing Belonging by Bishwanath Ghosh (I really liked his Chennai book Tamarind City which I felt was a good blend of history and present day culture and being mostly informational while having an easy reading, memoirish, conversational feel to it so that it feels like you’re learning with him), Calcutta: Two Years in the City by Amit Chaudhuri, various food books (Calcutta on Your Plate seemed like the best, there’s also A Taste of Time and a bunch of cookbooks), Heritage Retailers of Calcutta: 1785 to 1950, Krishna Dutta’s Tagore bio, Andrew Robinson’s Satyajit Ray bio, the Geoffrey Moorhouse book, maybe something about Bose, and really many many more! Spoiled for choice here.
I also recommend reading about The Calcutta Key, a guide for American troops stationed in the city during WW2. Fun read!
And my life was greatly enriched by reading about Gaganendranath Tagore’s satirical art. See more here.
Fiction
Bengali Fiction
For fiction, I would definitely recommend reading something written in Bengali (whether the original works or in translation, as I did), even though there are a lot of great English language works about the city. I didn’t read any Bengali language novels, but I read dozens of short stories. I’m not the biggest short story fan, I much prefer larger works, but short stories were a good way for me to get a survey of many major Bengali writers. It shouldn’t have been a surprise, but I was still impressed by how much talent there was in Calcutta in the mid-20th century (I couldn’t find dates on many of the stories I read but I think most of them were from that era) and by how modern and cynical many of the stories were. I do wish I read a few Bengali novels, though, and I hope to soon (highest on my list is Chowringhee by Sankar).
A lot of short stories can be found online, and while I generally don’t like reading from my phone/computer, I usually found these stories short enough that it was fine.
The most prolific Bengali translator is Arunava Sinha, and many of his translated works can be found on his website.
Sinha also translated and curated the collection The Greatest Bengali Stories Ever Told which I’ve read many stories from, though there’s only one story from each author in there and I preferred doing 3-4 per author and then moving on to another author.
Another good online source for Bengali short stories is here.
You can search by author on that link, while on Arunava Sinha’s website they are tagged by author but there is no search function, so google “arunavasinha.com [author’s name]” to find what you want to read, though this doesn’t always work since there are numerous spellings of people’s names. Also, many authors have short story collections which have a few stories available in the free samples on Kindle, so that’s a good way to sample their works.
Some of my favorite Bengali writers that I read, written in some order of preference: