India Calling (2011) In 2011, Giridharadas published his first book, ''India Calling: An Intimate Portrait of a Nation's Remaking''. In
The Plain Dealer, Jo Gibson called the book "readable" and "intriguing" and Giridharadas "a marvelous journalist—intrepid, easy to like, curious."
The True American (2014) In 2014,
W. W. Norton and Company published Giridharadas's second book,
The True American: Murder and Mercy in Texas. It centers on executed murderer
Mark Stroman and a survivor of one of his shootings,
Rais Bhuiyan. It explores Bhuiyan's forgiveness of Stroman and his campaign to save Stroman from capital punishment. At the time of the shootings, Stroman thought he was exacting revenge for the
September 11, 2001, attacks, but his victims were immigrants from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. In his review for
The Washington Post,
Eboo Patel wrote that the book "zooms out and illuminates the broader social context of the lives at the center" In
The Wall Street Journal,
Stephen Harrigan wrote that Giridharadas is "an enterprising and clear-eyed reporter and a generally smooth writer, though every 20 pages or so there appears a glistening chunk of linguistic gristle... But occasional maladroit phrases do no serious harm to his commanding narrative."
Winners Take All (2018) In 2018, Giridharadas published
Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World in which he argues that members of the global elite, though sometimes engaged in philanthropy, use their wealth and influence to preserve systems that concentrate wealth at the top at the expense of societal progress. Writing for
The New York Times, economist
Joseph Stiglitz praised the book, writing that Giridharadas "writes on two levels — seemingly tactful and subtle — but ultimately he presents a devastating portrait of a whole class, one easier to satirize than to reform."
The Persuaders (2022) In 2022, Giridharadas published
The Persuaders: At the Front Lines of the Fight for Hearts, Minds, and Democracy. The book was billed as "An insider account of activists, politicians, educators, and everyday citizens working to change minds, bridge divisions, and fight for democracy—from
disinformation fighters to a leader of
Black Lives Matter to
Bernie Sanders and
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and more". == Personal life ==