India, Jan. 17 -- Civic elections have sparked renewed interest in how Mumbai's residents live. Reams have been written on the history and political economy of India's Maximum City. But it is in fiction that we may find the best facsimiles of reality. We recommend Maya Nagari: Bombay-Mumbai A City in Stories, edited by writers Shanta Gokhale and Jerry Pinto. A collection of 21 short stories, featuring authors such as Sadat Hasan Manto, Pu La Deshpande, Urmila Pawar, Ambai, and Jayant Kaikani, it offers a near ethnographic understanding of the city through the lives of Mumbaikars, imagined but who could well be real - a mill worker here, a five-star regular there. Embodying the melting pot that Mumbai is, the stories are from linguistic provenance as varied as Marathi, English and Tamil. The book is a textured telling of Mumbai's social history and the inner life of the city's residents....