The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga (2008) is the most celebrated novel to come out of Bangalore's tech boom era. Narrated by a driver-turned-entrepreneur who claws his way up from the servant class, it is funny, brutal, and sharp about the contradictions of modern India. It won the Booker Prize and remains the best single novel for understanding the city's darker side.
A Place Called Home by Srinath Perur (2020) is a collection of essays about Indian cities and the experience of belonging to them. Perur, who writes about Bangalore with particular care, is excellent on the city's character — its relationship to migration, modernity, and the idea of home in a place that has changed almost beyond recognition in a generation.
Malgudi Days by R.K. Narayan is set in a fictional South Indian town clearly modeled on Mysore and, at moments, Bangalore. Narayan's world is gentle, comic, and full of recognisable humanity. If you're traveling through Karnataka and want fiction that captures the texture of ordinary South Indian life, this is the place to start.
Anything For You, Ma'am by Tushar Raheja (2006) is a lighter choice — a comic novel about an IIT student traveling across India to win his parents' approval for a love marriage. Set partly in Bangalore, it captures the city's student culture and the peculiar romance of long-distance train journeys in India. Good holiday reading.