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Suketu Mehta was born in Calcutta in 1963, grew up in Bombay and left for New York in 1977, aged fourteen. Twenty-one years later he went back with his family and spent more than two years among the people Maximum City (2004) is made of: a police inspector he calls Ajay Lal, the Shiv Sena leader Bal Thackeray, hit men from the city’s gangs, a bar dancer called Monalisa, and a wealthy Jain family who gave everything away to become wandering monks. The book was a finalist for the 2005 Pulitzer Prize. Fifteen years later came This Land Is Our Land (2019), his case for migrants, drawn from his own family’s migrations and his reporting. The ten writers below share his ground: the crowded city and the people who move to it, written from among them rather than about them.
By Lisanne Swart · 10 authors · Narrative nonfiction · Bombay and migration · Updated October 2026
Quick answer
If you liked Maximum City, start with Katherine Boo, whose Behind the Beautiful Forevers (2012) follows the families of Annawadi, a Mumbai slum, and Sonia Faleiro, whose Beautiful Thing (2010) follows Leela, a Bombay bar dancer she met in 2005. Vikram Chandra, who co-wrote the film Mission Kashmir with Mehta, set his 900-page novel Sacred Games (2006) among Mumbai’s police and gangsters. Further down are the migration writers to read beside This Land Is Our Land, and a British economist who makes the case for caution.
10 authors like Suketu Mehta
Where to start if you loved Suketu Mehta
If you want Mumbai from below, read Katherine Boo.
Behind the Beautiful Forevers stays in one slum beside the airport for three years.
If you want the bar dancers, read Sonia Faleiro.
Beautiful Thing is built around Leela, whom Faleiro met in 2005.
If you want the city as fiction, read Vikram Chandra or Rohinton Mistry.
Sacred Games for the police and the gangs; A Fine Balance for ordinary families.
If you want the migration argument, read Dina Nayeri, then Paul Collier.
The Ungrateful Refugee argues from experience; Exodus argues for caution.
If you want to go back to Mehta, read Maximum City.
Start with the 2004 book about Bombay and read This Land Is Our Land (2019) after it.
Frequently asked questions about authors like Suketu Mehta
Who writes like Suketu Mehta?
Katherine Boo, Sonia Faleiro and Vikram Chandra are the closest: all three write about Mumbai’s poor, its nightlife or its police from long time spent among them. For his writing on migration, try Dina Nayeri and Mohsin Hamid.
What should I read after Maximum City?
Try Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo for Mumbai’s poorest families, or Beautiful Thing by Sonia Faleiro for the bar dancers Mehta also wrote about.
Is Suketu Mehta like Salman Rushdie?
Both grew up in Bombay and left it, and both have made the city their subject. Rushdie writes it as fiction and myth in Midnight’s Children; Mehta reports it as nonfiction in Maximum City.
What is This Land Is Our Land about?
It is Mehta’s argument for immigration, drawn from his family’s migrations and his reporting. He argues that migrants are owed a place in the rich countries that profited from their homelands.
Does Suketu Mehta have a new book?
His most recent book is This Land Is Our Land (2019). In 2016 he told Open magazine he was working on a book about immigrants in New York, but no publication date has been announced.
Which Suketu Mehta book should I read first?
Maximum City (2004), his portrait of Bombay, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Read This Land Is Our Land (2019) second.
Sources
- Suketu Mehta — Wikipedia
- If You Can Make It There (review of Maximum City) — America Magazine
- Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found — Publishers Weekly
- Suketu Mehta: City Slicker — Open
List last reviewed 31 October 2026.
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