Books

Historian William Dalrymple has been awarded the 2026 Mark Lynton History Prize for his book "The Golden Road: How Ancient India Transformed the World" for combining "literary grace, commitment to serious research and social concern". The Mark Lynton History Prize is an annual USD 10,000 award given to a book "of history, on any subject, that best combines intellectual or scholarly distinction with felicity of expression". The other finalist in the category was Siddharth Kara for "The Zorg: Tale of Greed and Murder That Inspired the Abolition of Slavery". The jury comprised Scott Reynolds Nelson (chair), Geraldo Cadava, Ann Fabian, and Manisha Sinha. "Dalrymple's 'The Golden Road' is a perspective-shifting book that places India at the centre of ancient Asian history. After Dalrymple, it will be difficult to discuss the Silk Road connecting China and the West without also considering the importance of the Golden Road, which spread India's influence west and east through trade, ...

The author argues that Xi could dismantle Deng's "reforms" because latter was not totally committed to political reform and was against a third-party check on future establishment of personality cults

Throughout the book, and particularly in the first half, Mr Murugan talks about how cinema is tied in the fabric of Tamil society through anecdotes and his own analysis of certain phenomena

Over the years, Harper Lee's book has encountered pushback and bans, but in her centennial year, its lesson is as clear as it was when she wrote it: Silencing a mockingbird is difficult

Democracy's survival does not hinge on perfect leaders or policies, but on cultivating citizens who can tell the difference between what their feeds confirm and what evidence actually supports

AI is still not intelligent in the human sense, but fears of a superintelligent threat to humanity are not misplaced

The book is interested in not just the stories of the women who amassed immense wealth and wielded great power, but those whose quiet labour laid the building blocks of history

By revisiting lesser-known rebellions and forgotten episodes, Revolting takes readers on a tour of the world

A central insight of the book lies in its sustained attention to influence as a social and economic form

The book not only tells of many such awe-inspiring moments in the life of a startup, it also captures the unpredictability, risk and adventure through it all

With wisecracks, misadventures, and tales of first love, Malala Yousafzai takes charge of her own story, offering the world an unfiltered glimpse into her life

Yet Ms Kondo's book arrives into a different conversation than the one she helped start a decade ago

Ita Mehrotra's Uprooted, through evocative prose and stunning black-and-white illustrations capturing years of fieldwork, narrates the displacement of Van Gujjar and Taungya communities

In uncovering how CCD was run as a one-man show, this book weaves a cautionary tale for investors, regulators, consumers, and even fellow journalists

The book opens with Mr Zaidi's journey to meet a mysterious figure who people call Akka, once a key aide to one of Mumbai's mob bosses Varadarajan Mudaliar

Yiyun Li is an award-winning Chinese-American author with multiple novels and short story collections to her name

This book attempts to track contours of relationship against this backdrop. But the author cautions that it is principally a study of US foreign policy & the American side of the US-China relationship

Mashelkar and Borde argue that true innovation doesn't cut corners or chase exclusivity. It expands access, raises quality and proves that efficiency and equity can coexist

People, says Mr Housel, rarely make grave spending mistakes when trying to meet basic needs. Misjudgments arise once they graduate to the realm of discretionary spending

Simon Winchester's The Breath of the Gods explores how wind has shaped exploration, disaster, innovation, and imagination, even as its future remains uncertain