This is a 2025 October reading roundup, not a current October 2026 release guide. Published by Scroll.in on October 5, 2025, it highlights five novels and one anthology, with stories ranging from a modern swayamvar to the Tebhaga movement and eighteen fictional portraits of Bombay. The descriptions were sourced from publishers, so treat them as introductions to the books rather than independent reviews.
At a glance: six books, five novels and one anthology
| Book | Form | Setting or focus | Language information |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intemperance — Sonora Jha | Novel | A woman’s 55th-birthday swayamvar | Not stated in the roundup |
| Our Friends in Good Houses — Rahul Pandita | Novel | A journalist searching for home across America and Delhi | Not stated in the roundup |
| The Struggle — Showkat Ali | Novel | Mid-1940s Dinajpur and the Tebhaga movement | Translated from Bengali by V Ramaswamy and Mohiuddin Jahangir |
| Lonely People Meet — Sayantan Ghosh | Novel | Delhi, romance, memory and identity | Not stated in the roundup |
| The Only City: Bombay in Eighteen Stories — edited by Anindita Ghose | Anthology | Short fiction set across Bombay/Mumbai | Not stated in the roundup |
| That’s A Fire Ant Right There: Tales from Kavali — Mohammed Khadeer Babu | Novel | Muslim lives and childhood in coastal Andhra | Translated from Telugu by DV Subhashri |
Five novels about reinvention, home and social divisions
Intemperance by Sonora Jha
A woman who has left two husbands decides to mark her 55th birthday by holding a swayamvar. The premise gives Jha room to explore desire and the public spectacle of a woman choosing a partner, alongside disability, caste, masculinity, ridicule and tenderness. It is the roundup’s most explicitly contemporary premise: the matchmaking ritual becomes a way to examine who gets to define a woman’s choices later in life.
Our Friends in Good Houses by Rahul Pandita
Neel, a journalist drawn to war zones, moves between America and Delhi while looking for a sense of home. Temporary dwellings and relationships shape that search. The novel is Pandita’s fiction debut, according to the October 2025 review roundup cited alongside the reading list. Its central question is less about a single destination than about whether a home can be made amid repeated departures.
The Struggle by Showkat Ali
Set in mid-1940s Dinajpur, in undivided Bengal, this historical novel follows Phulmoti, a young widow trying to hold on to her land and dignity, and Qutubali, an unlikely ally. Their personal struggle is situated alongside the Tebhaga movement, giving the story a frame of land, class and collective resistance.
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The English translation is by V Ramaswamy and Mohiuddin Jahangir. A publisher-hosted listing records a 296-page paperback published in November 2025. That date matters: the book appeared in a roundup published on October 5, so the paperback should not be described as already released on the roundup’s publication day.
Lonely People Meet by Sayantan Ghosh
In Delhi, aspiring novelist Karno and Devaki begin in what appears to be a romance. The story then turns toward fabricated lives, memory and identity, complicating the relationship between the people they are and the selves they present. Bloomsbury lists a 224-page paperback with an October 7, 2025 publication date—two days after the Scroll.in roundup.
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That’s A Fire Ant Right There: Tales from Kavali by Mohammed Khadeer Babu
This book uses a boy’s voice and humour to observe Muslim lives in coastal Andhra. Its concerns include education, child labour, caste and social barriers, as well as Hindu-Muslim friendship. The English translation is by DV Subhashri. The child’s perspective offers a way into questions that are social and political without making the account feel detached from everyday life.
One anthology, eighteen fictional views of Bombay
The Only City: Bombay in Eighteen Stories, edited by Anindita Ghose
This collection brings together eighteen short-fiction pieces set across Bombay, also known as Mumbai. Its characters and locations vary, making the city itself the connecting thread rather than a single protagonist or continuous plot. Ghose’s author site describes the book as a portrait of Bombay and includes endorsements from writers, including Suketu Mehta, author of Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found.
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If you want a single continuous narrative, choose one of the novels; if you want multiple fictional encounters with the city, this is the collection in the roundup built for that kind of reading.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How to choose among the October fiction picks
- For historical fiction about land and class: start with The Struggle, set in undivided Bengal during the Tebhaga movement.
- For an urban short-fiction collection: choose The Only City, the anthology of eighteen Bombay stories.
- For romance that shifts into questions of identity: consider Lonely People Meet.
- For displacement and the search for belonging: consider Our Friends in Good Houses.
- For a contemporary story about desire and a woman’s choices: consider Intemperance.
- For a child’s-eye view of social barriers and friendship: consider That’s A Fire Ant Right There.
Edition details are not established for every title here. The publisher records cited for The Struggle and Lonely People Meet confirm paperback editions, but that does not establish current stock or the available formats for the other books. Check a publisher or bookseller for the edition and territory you need.
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