Sri Lanka

Cinnamon Gardens: A Novel, by Shyam Selvadurai (1999). In this Jane Austen-inspired novel, heroine Annalukshmi is forced to choose between marriage and fulfilling her dream to be a teacher in Colombo. Author Selvadurai juxtaposes religious, political, and cultural insight with a 1927 romance, and the result is an inspiring historical novel about British-colonized Sri Lanka.

*Running in the Family, by Michael Ondaatje (1982). This is a nonfiction (with hefty poetic license) depiction of the author's early life in Sri Lanka. For Ondaatje (who wrote The English Patient), a return to his roots brings back elaborate memories of his Dutch-Ceylonese family.