Capital: The Eruption of Delhi

In this nonfiction debut, British Indian writer Dasgupta (winner of the 2010 Commonwealth Writer's Prize for Best Book, Solo) turns his attention to a postmillennial Delhi, a city in the "vortex of change," where he has been living for the last 13 years. Through both commentary and a series of lengthy profiles of Delhi residents in their own words, the author shows the transformation that has occurred in this century. Those portrayed range from a pioneer of business process outsourcing, the immensely rich and ambitious civil servants who bemoan the collusion between politics and big business, an ex-NGO (nongovernmental organization) employee working in a slum settlement, and an environmentalist who laments the present-day disregard for indigenous ways of water conservation. What emerges from these narratives is a grim picture of a city run by oligarchs and the "new black-money elite," where success depends on "influence, assets, and connections."