The Glass Palace

Amitav Ghosh is probably the best contemporary Indian writer. His books have style and are not formulaic.

The Glass Palace is a fictional novel that begins with the exile of the last king of Burma. The story spreads across 3 generations and ends in the 1990s with the Burmese junta crackdown. The title might sound a little misleading because the central characters of the plot, Rajkumar and Dolly are not from the royal family. The story intertwines the personal events of Rajkumar and Dolly with historical events to add spice. Halfway through, the story sags but picks up momentum towards the end.

Read the book when you have got a lot of leisure and patience to appreciate it's style.