Anya Taylor-Joy as Beth Harmon in the Netflix series, The Queen's Gambit. Here Beth is seen looking pensive at a chess board, in the midst of a room of onlookers.

Queens-Gambit-Main.jpg

Reading lists

Books to read if you loved The Queen’s Gambit

The Village

The Village by Nikita Lalwani is a disturbing and utterly gripping modern morality tale set in contemporary India. 
 
On a winter morning Ray Bhullar arrives at the gates of an Indian village. She is here to make a film. But this will be no ordinary tale about India - for this is no ordinary village. It is an open prison, inhabited by murderers. An apparent innocent among the guilty, Ray tries hard to be accepted. But the longer she and the rest of the crew stay, the more the need for drama increases. Soon the fragile peace of the village will be shattered and, despite Ray's seemingly good intentions, the motives of the visitors and the lives of the inhabitants will be terrifyingly, brutally exposed. 
 
Praise for The Village: 
 
'A thoughtful novel that envelops us in the oppression and beauty of the rural prison . . . each voice is distinct, believable and stubborn in its refusal to be easily known. Touchingly evocative' Financial Times 
 
'Thoughtful, beautifully written. A candid exploration of journalistic ethics' Observer 
 
'A masterclass. The inmates' stories evoke larger questions about justice and privacy, power and powerlessness' Guardian 
 
Nikita Lalwani was born in Rajasthan and raised in Cardiff. Her first novel Gifted was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize and shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award and won the Desmond Elliott Prize. She lives in London.

Sharp and uncompromising, it is a ripsnorting read that leaves us wondering where the needle will be pointing at the moment the moral compass is smashed to pieces

A thoughtful novel that envelops us in the oppression and beauty of the rural prison . . . each voice is distinct, believable and stubborn in its refusal to be easily known. Touchingly evocative

A  masterclass. The inmates' stories evoke larger questions about justice and privacy, power and powerlessness

Captures the hunger for self-improvement tinged with a pervasive sense of melancholy

Thoughtful, beautifully written. A candid exploration of journalistic ethics

Extraordinary ... Lalwani writes with wonderful clarity and intelligence

Gripping, heartbreaking, truly horrifying . . . simmers with understated menace

Extraordinary... What Nikita is really, really brilliant at is voice and people

Nikita Lalwani was born in Rajasthan and raised in Cardiff. She has written two novels previously, Gifted and The Village. Her first novel Gifted was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award and won the Desmond Elliott Prize. She was also nominated for the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award. She lives in London.

On a winter morning Ray Bhullar arrives at the gates of an Indian village. She is here to make a film. But this will be no ordinary tale about India - for this is no ordinary village. It is an open prison, inhabited by murderers. An apparent innocent among the guilty, Ray tries hard to be accepted. But the longer she and the rest of the crew stay, the more the need for drama increases. Soon the fragile peace of the village will be shattered and, despite Ray's seemingly good intentions, the motives of the visitors and the lives of the inhabitants will be terrifyingly, brutally exposed.

Gifted

A captivating portrait of a child prodigy weighed down by her family's high expectations and her own secret desires

In a voice that is by turns very funny and fiercely tender, Gifted by Nikita Lalwani brings us a captivating story of high aspirations and deep longing, and of the sometime loneliness of childhood. 
 
Cardiff in the 1980s is a place where maths can get you noticed. Rumis Vasi is the town's 'maths prodigy': untangling numbers and Rubik's Cubes protects her from the harsh vagaries of the playground and gives a pattern to her world. But after years of her father's determined tutoring, Rumi finds that numbers are beginning to lose their innocence. India infuses her with a romantic sense of belonging and, as she grows older, and desire becomes a dirty word in the Vasi household, the idea of love is opened up to painful examination. 
 
'A sparkling funny and poignant study of a young maths prodigy struggling with her gift and a difficult family' Gerard Woodward, Books Of The Year, Observer 
 
'Superb, brilliantly realised. The searing narrative is unflinchingly and tenderly written' Independent 
 
'Compelling, heart-wrenching and laced with redemptive hope . . . Touching and funny' Observer 
 
Nikita Lalwani was born in Rajasthan and raised in Cardiff. Her first novel Gifted was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize and shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award and won the Desmond Elliott Prize. She lives in London.

A sparkling funny and poignant study of a young maths prodigy struggling with her gift and a difficult family

Superb, brilliantly realised. The searing narrative is unflinchingly and tenderly written

Pinpoints with genuine insight the bewilderment and anguish of a young woman marked out from her peers

Lalwani's evocation of teenage dislocation is pitch-perfect and she inhabits her heroine's interior world with tender authority

The novel's triumph is in elucidating the hurt of both child and parents. Lalwani compellingly depicts the pain and pleasure of breaking the rules

Beautiful, brilliant . . . Unveils the grand emotions and tiny details of other people's lives with insight, compassion, humour and heartbreaking honesty

Accomplished and confident. Much to admire from the assured descriptions to the well judged blend of comedy and drama

A poignant, vivid debut. Beautifully describes the dramas of growing up

A giddy portrayal of youthful exuberance unleashed that rings startlingly true

Compelling, heart-wrenching and laced with redemptive hope . . . Touching and funny

Cardiff in the 1980s is a place where maths can get you noticed. Rumis Vasi is the town's 'maths prodigy': untangling numbers and Rubik's Cubes protects her from the harsh vagaries of the playground and gives a pattern to her world. But after years of her father's determined tutoring, Rumi finds that numbers are beginning to lose their innocence. India infuses her with a romantic sense of belonging and, as she grows older, and desire becomes a dirty word in the Vasi household, the idea of love is opened up to painful examination. 
 
In a voice that is by turns very funny and fiercely tender, Nikita Lalwani brings us a captivating story of high aspirations and deep longing, and of the sometime loneliness of childhood.

Nikita Lalwani

Enthralling as a thriller, yet also a beautiful human drama, and a serious enquiry into the possibility of goodness

Beautiful and brilliant. The exquisite writing is vivid, poetic and perceptive; the characters alive and compelling. Everything I want from a novel. I loved it.

Lively, poetically written and above all compassionate

This sinuous morality tale unfurls from the alternating perspectives... Slinking along like a thriller, it encompasses people smuggling, the labyrinthine inhumanity of Britain's immigration system, alcoholism and a class prejudice that cuts both ways. Kindness and its motives are a constant preoccupation

A startlingly original, continuously astute, and deeply compassionate novel. You People alerts us, in these dark times, to the possibility of human nobility

Lalwani's vivid, intensely empathic novel raises profound moral questions while maintaining the momentum and urgency of a thriller

Lalwani is a writer who understands people, and it shines through in her descriptions. This is a moving, authentic, humane novel which raises fundamental questions about what it means to be kind in an unkind world, and it will stay with me for a long time

Lalwani's novel tackles racism and xenophobia, but You People is essentially a compassionate human drama, full of perceptive insights

Folds serious social issues into an entertaining plot

Brilliant . . . A thriller reminiscent of Dirty Pretty Things. Really recommend it.

Intelligent and heart-piercing - an exceptional novel about the Britain we live in, even if we choose not to see it

A female lead who isn't defined by a romantic story arc? Yes please. Lalwani's serious, ravishing way of writing about the secret life of Britain is just what we need

You People is a short, complex novel that shines a light behind the smiles at your local restaurant, and asks tough questions about the nature of goodness in an unfair society

A sensitive and thought-provoking examination of an issue that is never far from the news and, as the plot accelerates, it segues into a tense and nerve-wracking thriller

Lalwani's novels are full of moments when the stories people tell about themselves and the world prove to be unreliable or open to manipulation.... observations are magical, fresh and unsettling

If you want a book to read this summer that taps into contemporary concerns, this excellent new one from Nikita Lalwani is the one to read

Lalwani explores kindness, altruism and the precariousness of interconnected lives in an economical tale that has the pace and suspense of a thriller

Lalwani eloquently explores the prejudices, financial pressures and loneliness faced by 'outsiders' trying to survive in a hostile environment

The Pizzeria Vesuvio looks like any other Italian restaurant in London - with a few small differences. The chefs who make the pizza fiorentinas are Sri Lankan, and half the kitchen staff are illegal immigrants. At the centre is Tuli, the restaurant's charismatic proprietor and resident Robin Hood, who promises to help anyone in need. Nineteen-year-old Nia, haunted by her troubled past, is running from her family. Shan, having fled the Sri Lankan civil war, is desperate to find his. But when Tuli's guidance leads them all into dangerous territory, and the extent of his mysterious operation unravels, each is faced with an impossible moral choice. In a world where the law is against you, how far would you be willing to lie for a chance to live?

Nikita Lalwani

Praise for You People

Enthralling as a thriller, yet also a beautiful human drama, and a serious enquiry into the possibility of goodness

Beautiful and brilliant. The exquisite writing is vivid, poetic and perceptive; the characters alive and compelling. Everything I want from a novel. I loved it.

Lively, poetically written and above all compassionate

Enthralling as a thriller, yet also a beautiful human drama, and a serious enquiry into the possibility of goodness

Beautiful and brilliant. The exquisite writing is vivid, poetic and perceptive; the characters alive and compelling. Everything I want from a novel. I loved it.

Lively, poetically written and above all compassionate

Enthralling as a thriller, yet also a beautiful human drama, and a serious enquiry into the possibility of goodness

Beautiful and brilliant. The exquisite writing is vivid, poetic and perceptive; the characters alive and compelling. Everything I want from a novel. I loved it.

Lively, poetically written and above all compassionate

Books by Nikita Lalwani

Articles featuring Nikita Lalwani

Books to read if you loved The Queen’s Gambit

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