Still, there are many books, often little gems published by a small press, very few people will ever hear about, much less read. While I realize no one has the time to read all the books that deserve to be read, it saddens me to think of these wonderful books falling into oblivion.

One of the best books you've probably never heard of is Cracking India by Bapsi Sidhwa, published by Milkweed Editions. (RW Summer '94) The story takes place in Lahore, 1947, the year of the Indian Partition. It is narrated by Lenny, a precocious, 8-year-old Parsi girl with a misshapen leg, the result of a bout with polio.

Well aware of the special consideration her handicap affords her, she readily admits to the reader her ambivalence regarding the series of operations she undergoes and the possibility that the damage might be corrected. This candor and insight signals a trustworthy as well as canny narrator.

As she describes her "compressed" world in Lahore, we meet the colorful assortment of characters that populates her household and neighborhood, and represents the gamut of religions and ethnicities-Sikhs, Muslims, Hindus, Christians, etc.- that were peacefully coexisting.

In one startling scene she comes face to face with Gandhi. This scene alone makes the book worth reading. The great leader appears in a light in which at least this reader would never have pictured him-and again we know we are in the hands of a narrator who pulls no punches and an author with a true eye for the comic.

As political tensions in the country increase, so do personal ones. Sensitive to the nuances in human relations, Lenny chronicles the subtle shifts that gradually transform harmony to hostility, and friends to enemies, ending in unspeakable atrocity and tragedy.

For one of the most appealing narrators you will ever come across, for a compelling and illuminating view of a moment in world history, and for clear-eyed insights into human nature, read this book.

A short quote:

"The godamn English!" I think, infected by Colonel Bharucha's startling ferocity at this "dastardly" (one of Father's favorite words, just as "plucky" is Mother's) instance of British treachery. "They gave us polio!" And notwithstanding the compatible and sanguine nature of my relationship with my disease, I feel it is my first personal involvement with Indian politics: The Quit-India sentiment that has fired the imagination of a subject people and will soon sweep away the Raj!

Other Great Reads

Here are two other titles by Bapsi Sidhwa, also published by Milkweed: The Crow Eaters and An American Brat.

More great reads you might not know about:

Cloudstreet by Tim Winton, Graywolf Press (See Great Reads)

Worldwide Church of the Handicapped by Marie Sheppard Williams, Coffee House Press

Into the Forest by Jean Hegland, Calyx Books

Please send your suggestions for the best book no one's ever heard.