Sea of Poppies, River of Smoke, and Flood of Fire by Amitav Ghosh. The first two of these were re-reads, the third was my first time. I love these books — all the different Englishes, the descriptions of food, and the way the characters are drawn so distinctively. This also introduced me to something excellent I’d not been aware of before, namely akuri (the version in the book just used eggs, spring onions, green chillies, and fresh coriander, which is what I used when I made it).