The BBC has released a list of 100 'Novels That Shaped Our World', to mark the 300th anniversary of the publication of Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, believed to herald the birth of the English language novel.
A few Indian authors have also made it to the list—R.K. Narayan, Arundhati Roy, Salman Rushdie and Vikram Seth.
The panel comprising the Times Literary Supplement editor Stig Abell, founder and director of the Bradford Literature Festival Syima Aslam, novelists Juno Dawson and Kit de Waal, journalist and presenter Mariella Frostrup and author and academic Alexander McCall Smith spent months debating before choosing from an array of contemporary reads, literary classics, graphic novels and children's books.
The list, that ranges from classics to contemporary, is split into ten categories including identity, love, sex and romance, politics, power and protest, and class and society.
Roy's debut novel The God of Small Things features in the identity category, Narayan's Swami and Friends in the 'Coming of Age' section while Rushdie's The Moor's Last Sigh is placed in the rule breakers class. Seth's A Suitable Boy features on the list in the family and friendship category and V.S. Naipaul's 'A House for Mr Biswas' is placed named in the class and society section.
Pakistani authors Mohsin Hamid and Kamila Shamsie' have also made it onto the list for their novels The Reluctant Fundamentalist and Home Fire respectively. Some of the other novels chosen include A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin, Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird and Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.
J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series also features on the list.
-with PTI inputs
