MJ Akbar | Pratap Bhanu Mehta | William Dalrymple | Amit Chaudhuri | Aatish Taseer | Tishani Doshi | KR Meera | Vivek Shanbhag | TCA Raghavan
From the architecture of the gene to the oral histories of men and women in the former USSR, this year’s best books reveal what it is to be human