Recommendations for India

I'm heading to India for two weeks in October, and want to get started on some pre-trip reading. Have you read anything set in India that you would recommend? I'll be traveling to Delhi, Agra, Amritsar, Jaipur and Ajmer, but would like to read books set throughout the country.
I see that November's theme read is India - looking forward to it (but wish it were sooner)!
Thanks!

I am a fan of Raj, by Gita Mehta, Beneath a Marble Sky by John Shors and The Enchantress of Florence, by Salman Rushdie. Those are both really good to read while in Delhi and Agra, I think, for a sense of the Mughal and Indian royal courts. For modern Indian reading, there are tons of books such as Maximum City, The White Tiger, The God of Small Things, etc.

I think to really get all the cultural references for temples and mythology and the like, it would also be good to get a book of Indian mythology (unless you want to try the Mahabharata, which is long but excellent). And of cousre... there is always The Jungle Book and any other book by Kipling!

I'm currently reading Planet India: How the Fastest-Growing Democracy is Transforming America and the World, by Mira Kamdar, which is pretty interesting so far, and (for me) a follow-up to Edward Luce's In Spite of the Gods: The Strange Rise of Modern India. Those are both non-fiction, though, so I am not sure if they are of interest to you.

Fiction-wise, I'm a big fan of short stories (they read quickly and easily, which is a boon to busy people). You might try Story-Wallah: Short Fiction from South Asian Writers (the touchstone doesn't work for some reason).

Aarti mentioned Gita Mehta. I enjoyed her novel A River Sutra very much -- a modern fairy-tale of sorts.

Edited to add -- If you enjoy travel writing, Travelers' Tales has an Indian collection (Travelers' Tales India).

I learned so much about India from reading A Fine Balance, which is fabulously written, but devastating. Midnight's Children was also fabulously educational and entertaining, but more difficult to follow.

Rushdie's The Moor's Last Sigh is fabulous -- the history of independent India is compacted into Moraes Zogoiby's double-quick life -- it's a roller coaster of a read.

Take a look at Anita Rau Badami's books. I also liked the memoir of Madhur Jaffery -Climbing the Mango Trees: a Memoir of a Childhood in India. It also had recipes!

One of my favorite books of all time is A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth -- very long but extremely readable.

I loved The Raj Quartet when I read it 20+ years ago, but this is more historical than contemporary.

Climbing the Mango Tree was charming.

I also recommend Sacred Games by Vikram Chandra, not always an easy read but a remarkable and generally successful attempt to capture all of contemporary Mumbai/Bombay through the lens of a gangster story.

Wonderful - thanks so much, everyone! This is a great list to get me started. I'm just about to begin Are you Experienced? by William Sutcliffe...

A Passage to India by E. M. Forster is great! I also liked The God of Small Things by Arundhai Roy.

I am currently reading Animal's People by Indra Sinha but it's a bit depressing so maybe it's best not to read it before your trip?

I have read the below and enjoyed them all.

The Death of Vishnu by Manil Suri
Sister of My Heart: A Novel by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
Tamarind Woman by Anita Rau Badami
The Hero's Walk by Anita Rau Badami
The Vine of Desire: A Novel by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni sequel to Sister of My Heart

Would as suggest seeing the movie Monsoon Wedding.

All great suggestions!

Also, check out R.K. Narayan's Malgudi stories...

Nectar in a Sieve by Kamala Markandaya

Untouchable by Mulk Raj Anand

Sunlinght on a Broken Column and Phoenix Fled by Attia Hosain

For colonial India The Siege at Krishnapur by J.G. Farrell and Bhowani Junction by John Masters.

Twilight in Delhi by Ahmed Ali (fiction) and Chasing the Monsoon by Alexander Frater (nonfiction)

Roy Moxham, The Great Hedge of India (non-fiction).

Oh yes, how could I forget The Siege at Krishnapur -- a wonderful book!

Two that I read and loved and recommend heartily:

Family Matters by Rohinton Mistry (set in Bombay/Mumbai)

The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai (set up by the northern border with Nepal)

Hope you enjoy your trip!

How could I forget:

Bombay Time: A Novel by Thrity Umrigar

So many good ones already mentioned...

I will add: books by Amitav Ghosh or Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. I also liked Across the Mystic Shore by Suroopa Mukherjee, Motherland by Vineela Vijayaraghavan, The Sari Shop by Rupa Bajwa, and Twentieth Wife by Indu Sundaresan.

Suggest watching movies: "Earth", "Water" and "Fire". A trilogy only in that they are by the same director. Also "Lagaan" for nice introduction into Bollywood.

Thanks for all your suggestions -much appreciated!
I am currently reading The Case of the Missing Servant by Tarquin Hall - a great mystery / detective novel set in Delhi.

I highly recommend the Ghosh as well. His collection of nonfiction essays Incendiary Circumstances is excellent.

As far as film goes (re: 19), I highly recommend almost all of Satyajit Ray's films as well (He's from the other side of North India to where you'll be, but they're classics throughout the continent.)