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Konkona Sensharma's Favourite Books: What Is The Actor-Director Reading This Month?
The actor-director shares five haunting, beautiful books that invariably echo the themes of her work in films — identity, memory, resilience and truth.
From day one, actor-director Konkona Sensharma has been a storyteller who gravitates towards truth, nuance and complexity. Across her cinematic choices, from Lipstick Under My Burkha (2016) to A Death in the Gunj (2016), she has long championed narratives that hold a mirror to the marginalised.
It’s no surprise, therefore, that her bookshelf echoes the very themes her filmography explores: identity, displacement, mental illness, addiction, memory, and the often invisible intricacies of female relationships.
In this curated list of literary favourites — from Pachinko and Shuggie Bain to Cat’s Eye — we glimpse the layered, emotionally charged storytelling that resonates with her.
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
This sweeping, multigenerational saga traces the poignant journey of a Korean family exiled in Japan across the twentieth century. Lee delves into the themes of resilience, identity and belonging, anchoring the story in the life of Sunja, whose decisions ripple through generations. And from Lipstick Under My Burkha to Talvar (2015), Sensharma has worked in a number of films that share these themes. The prose in the novel is restrained, invariably allowing the weight of displacement, survival and sacrifice to resonate deeply. Lee deftly interrogates history without preaching, highlighting the often erased Korean-Japanese experience with empathy and nuance. Pachinko is not just a novel, rather, a masterclass in storytelling that feels epic in scope and intimate in detail.
Em and the Big Hoom by Jerry Pinto
Jerry Pinto’s Em and the Big Hoom is a tender, unflinching portrait of a family navigating the chaos of mental illness in a middle-class Goan Catholic household in Mumbai. Told through the eyes of a son trying to make sense of his mercurial, captivating mother, the novel oscillates between love, despair, humour and of course, aching vulnerability. The words are sharp yet poetic, filled with a rare honesty that never slips into sentimentality. With its unique voice and deeply personal lens, Em and the Big Hoom is an exploration of madness, memory and the fragile threads that hold families together.
Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart
A debut that chronicles a young boy’s coming of age amidst poverty, addiction and emotional ruin in 1980s Glasgow, Douglas Stuart’s Shuggie Bain is centered on the tender yet turbulent bond between Shuggie and his alcoholic mother Agnes. Much like all of Sensharma’s favourite novels, Stuart’s prose is raw and lyrical, capturing the gritty life of the working class with compassion. What emerges is a portrait of resilience and innocence clinging to hope in the face of relentless hardship.
Cat’s Eye by Margaret Atwood
A staunch feminist, Sensharma is often heard speaking about women’s relationships in her interviews; their relationships with men, with cinema, with power and most importantly, with each other. On that note, Margaret Atwood’s Cat’s Eye is a haunting, psychologically astute exploration of memory, female friendships and the lingering wounds of childhood. Through the eyes of Elaine Risley, a painter returning to Toronto for a retrospective, Atwood excavates the buried traumas of girlhood — particularly the subtle cruelty between young girls. Cat’s Eye is a masterful meditation on art, identity and the ghosts that quietly shape us.
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
Gabrielle Zevin’s Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is a meditation on creativity, connection and the bittersweet nature of long-term friendship. Spanning decades and set against the immersive world of video game design, the novel follows Sam and Sadie — two people bound by love, ambition, and unspoken grief. The author explores the possibilities of virtual worlds while grounding the story in the aching realities of human experience. At once nostalgic and forward-looking, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is a celebration of art, storytelling and also, second chances.
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