How Vikram Seth's A Suitable Boy attracted German Ambassador to India

For German diplomat Philipp Ackermann, India was more than a diplomatic posting. A chance encounter with Vikram Seth's A Suitable Boy at a New York bookstore in the early 2000s sparked a fascination with India that eventually brought him to New Delhi as the German Ambassador.

For most diplomats, a posting to a foreign country is the result of years of professional planning, language training and geopolitical priorities. For German diplomat Philipp Ackermann, however, the journey to India began much earlier—with a chance encounter in a New York bookstore and a copy of Vikram Seth's A Suitable Boy on a hot summer afternoon.

Ackermann's tenure as the German Ambassador to India ends in August. The veteran diplomat had been serving as Germany's Ambassador to India from 2022.

Other than his diplomatic work, Ackermann has been known for his book reviews.

He has frequently spoken about the books that have shaped him through his 'Ambassador's Bookshelf' series on social media. His recommendations have ranged from Salman Rushdie's Knife and Joel Dimsdale's The Anatomy of Malice to Zahid Rafiq's The World with its Mouth Open.

But his most personal recommendation is Vikram Seth's A Suitable Boy, because, as Ackermann puts it, it was "basically the book that brought me to India".

Ackermann first served in New Delhi from 2007 to 2010 before returning as Ambassador in 2022. During his four-year tenure, he became well known for his informal engagement with Indian culture, from his much-followed 'Mango Diaries' to joining embassy staff for a Naatu Naatu dance in Delhi.

Yet his fascination with India began much earlier, during a diplomatic posting in New York.

THE BOOK THAT SPARKED ACKERMANN'S INTEREST IN INDIA

The story stars in the late 1990s and early 2000s, when Ackermann was serving at Germany's Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York. One summer, looking for relief from the city's unpleasant heat, he wandered into a bookstore.

"And I ended up in a bookstore in New York, strolling through the shelves and trying to find something interesting," he recalled in the final video of his 'Ambassador's Bookshelf' series on social media.

He soon spotted what he called "this brick of a book".

"It's Vikram Seth's A Suitable Boy."

The enormous novel, which runs to more than 1,300 pages in most editions (so large, that its manuscript needed to be transported in a whisky crate to publishers in London), immediately drew him in.

"I found myself, after the first five, six, seven, eight pages, so drawn into this book that I bought it, and I couldn't stop reading for a long, long time."

WHAT'S THE PLOT OF VIKRAM SETH'S A SUITABLE BOY?

Published in 1993, A Suitable Boy is set in the early 1950s, shortly after India's Independence. It follows several interconnected families in the fictional North Indian state of Brahmpur, with the story centred on Lata Mehra and her mother's search for a suitable husband for her. Taking Seth nearly eight years to complete, A Suitable Boy is widely regarded as one of the most celebrated works of post-Independence Indian literature.

Without giving away the story, the novel uses that matrimonial search to explore a much wider India — its families, politics, religion, social divisions and the changes taking place in a newly independent country.

For Ackermann, it was the novel's ability to bring that world alive that mattered most.

'I wanted to go to this country'

After finishing the book, Ackermann found himself wanting to see the India he had encountered through Seth's characters.

"Once I finished it, which takes a while because it's, I don't know, 1,800 pages or so, I felt that I wanted to go to this country where this novel is set in."

"And I, as you know, succeeded in getting this wish come true."

Years later, that wish became a reality when he returned to India as ambassador. Looking back at the end of his tenure, Ackermann said the country he found was not far removed from the one Seth had introduced him to.

"I can tell you that Vikram Seth, in a wonderful way, gets the spirit of India perfectly."

What particularly impressed him was Seth's treatment of the characters. Ackermann described Lata as "this very self-confident girl" and her mother as "somewhat annoying", but said Seth's writing makes readers feel intimately connected to them.

"Vikram Seth has a way of describing things in such a wonderful style that you feel you are kind of part of this family."

Ackermann is even careful when discussing Lata's eventual choice, refusing to spoil the novel for those who have not read it. "Lata's choice, I will not give it up," he said. "I always felt a little disappointed by her choice, but you will find the reasons in this book."

A RECOMMENDATION FROM THE GERMAN AMBASSADOR

Ackermann later had the opportunity to meet the author Vikram Seth himself and was impressed by the author beyond his writing.

"He's a wonderful person, not only a wonderful writer, but also a wonderful person," he said, adding that he discovered Seth speaks German and sings German Lieder.

For Ackermann, A Suitable Boy is not just another classic of Indian literature. It is also a book that can introduce outsiders to the country without reducing its complexity. "If you want to read a good book about India, take Vikram Seth's Suitable Boy," he said.

He compares Seth's ability to combine a vast narrative with humour, wisdom and entertainment to German writers such as Thomas Mann.

"It is very unique," Ackermann said. "Full of wisdom, full of entertainment, and full of good stories."

ACKERMANN'S TENURE SAW INDIA-GERMANY TIES REACH NEW HEIGHTS

Ackermann's four-year stint in India saw bilateral ties with Germany reach new heights.

This time period saw New Delhi and Berlin deepen ties across trade, technology, defence, energy, climate and migration, with the 2022 Migration and Mobility Partnership and the 2024 German "Focus on India" strategy giving the relationship added momentum.

The partnership also gained a stronger economic and strategic focus, culminating in German Chancellor Friedrich Merz's January 2026 India visit, when the two sides advanced cooperation on semiconductors and critical minerals, while the India-EU FTA added further momentum to economic ties.

Ackermann is set to begin his next assignment as Germany's ambassador to China in October this year.

For a diplomat who eventually spent four years representing Germany in India, it is an unusually fitting origin story: a chance purchase in a New York bookstore became the beginning of a relationship with a country that would later become a major chapter of his diplomatic career. Philip Ackermann's tenure as Germany's Ambassador to India ends this month. He is set to take up the mantle of Germany's Ambassador to China in October this year. However, he will most likely carry forward his love for India wherever he goes. Auf Wiedersehen, Ambassador.

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