In retrospect, he has only himself to blame.
It all began on writer Nikesh Shukla’s Twitter timeline on Saturday, as he tweeted an offer to recommend books by writers of colour in response to "likes" of his tweet. One like = one recommendation. Shukla is a British writer of Indian origin – someone who writes across forms, and has in the process built a portfolio of novels, novellas, short stories, essays, films, and more.
Perhaps Shukla hadn’t thought his offer would be taken seriously. But as the “likes” began to mount, he got going to keep his word. The outcome, still a work in progress as he matches recommendations to likes, is perhaps the most noteworthy curated list of contemporary works by non-white writers.
Pausing to catch his breath in between, Shukla made a mock appeal for the likes to stop.
But he did promise to get to 100 at least.
Here’s our pick of 26 from the huge list that Shukla has created.