Best books… Jeet Thayil

The Indian poet and novelist chooses his favourite books for comfort reading. His bestselling novel was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2012, and his latest, is published by Faber at £15

Narcopolis Low,

attrib. Thomas à Kempis, c.14181427 (Penguin, used from £1.10). Written anonymously, in Latin, the book is a lesson in humility, particularly for writers: “Do not let the writer’s authority or learning influence you, be it little or great, but let the love of pure truth attract you to read.” All is vanity, he writes. The supreme wisdom is to despise the world.

by Sister Juana Inés de la Cruz, 1988 (Harvard University Press £21). Sor Juana renounced writing some years before her death. And if that isn’t enough to endear her to writers, there is this: she died while tending to the sick during an epidemic (the word pandemic had not yet been invented). With an introduction by the Mexican poet Octavio Paz, this is the definitive edition of Sor Juana’s poems – angry, scholarly and profane by turns.

Books, out of print). Set in preIndependence India. Never mind the breathless cover prose – “A girl from the East. A man from the West. Could their love survive the hatred around them?” – this is quintessential Markandaya, and a reminder of a novelist who fell too easily into obscurity.

by Denis Johnson, 1992 (Granta £9). On rereading these luminous stories, what strikes you is the comedy, and a poet’s regard for the sentence. The unnamed protagonist, referred to most often as “Fuckhead”, is a visionary spirit vessel whose sense of sin and redemption is nothing if not religious.