Anand Giridharadas was born and bred in America; his parents part of the generation who felt they had no choice but to leave in pursuit of a better life. As a young adult, Anand reversed their trajectory, moving back to a now-booming India, which (after a stint as a management consultant) enabled him to fulfil his dream of becoming a writer. He landed the coveted job of Bombay correspondent for The New York Times. The job enabled him to travel the country, interviewing both ordinary and extraordinary Indians.

This is an eminently readable, closely observed book on a fascinating subject, told in classically American ‘new journalism’ reportage style, with Anand firmly at the centre of the story – the perfect intermediary between Western readers and the world he introduces. At its heart, he traces an extraordinary psychological transformation, including a growing self-confidence that manifests in an embrace of uniquely Indian characteristics and cultural effects, rather than the self-conscious appropriation of English culture (including cultivated BBC accents) that signified success for Anand’s parents’ generation. At the same time, the American orthodoxy of the self (and self-invention) is rapidly growing.

He introduces us to self-made entrepreneur Ravindra, a low-caste labourer become in-demand lecturer (in the model of the US motivational gurus he idolises), with lucrative side businesses including roller-skating and pageants. There’s all-powerful businessman Mukesh Ambani, a kind of Indian Godfather figure (without the crime, but with a heady dash of corruption), who exemplifies the new Indian identity in his passionate identification with his roots. And the Brahmin Maoist who denounces capitalism and plans to overthrow it, while writing breathless tributes to the IT industry he loathes in his day job at The Economic Times. Taken together, Anand’s fellow travellers and observations on his journey form a mosaic picture of the new India; how it has changed – and how far it still has to go.