About the book
Twelve long-form conversations with people who, in their eighties and nineties, are among the last living Indians who helped design its institutions — a former RBI governor, a scientist from the early space programme, a Supreme Court judge, a nun who ran a leprosy hospital for sixty years.
“Each conversation is followed by a short essay placing the person in the arc of the country they helped shape.”
Key themes
About the author
Meera Iyer
Meera Iyer is a Chennai-based journalist and biographer. Her work focuses on business families, quiet founders, and the long arc of Indian enterprise. She is the author of The Founder Who Vanished. An Unfinished Country is her third book and the product of a four-year reporting project.
Voices of readers
What Readers Are Saying
From quiet reflections to strong recommendations — here's how readers are responding to An Unfinished Country.
2 reviews
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I cannot remember the last time an Indian non-fiction book made me cry twice. This one did. Meera Iyer is a serious writer and this is a serious, generous, patient piece of work.
— Diya JoshiJuly 2026The conversation with the former RBI governor alone justifies the book. But the real gift is the sequencing — twelve people whose lives, taken together, quietly trace the shape of a country still figuring itself out. A moving, unusual, important book.
— Siddharth RaoJuly 2026