The best fall reads: 27 awesome books for tea-and-blanket season

The Parcel by Anosh Irani, $32.

Madhu, who was born a boy, chose to become a eunuch and identifies now as a third sex, known in Bombay’s red-light district as a hijra. Madhu was the jewel of the brothel and a skilled teacher of sex workers. Now, in her 40s, she’s begging in the streets — until she is brought back to prepare a trafficked girl for her fate, one neither of them can quite accept.