Books and Authors question: In a comparison beginning with The Shadow Lines, which of the following book–author pairs is incorrectly matched?

The source-backed, question-specific record explains: The Shadow Lines is correctly associated with Amitav Ghosh. The work’s first publication is conventionally dated to 1988, and its original language is English. These three details—title, author, and language—form the decisive bibliographical combination required here. The distractor set (An Era of Darkness — Shashi Tharoor; Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind — Yuval Noah Harari; The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money — John Maynard Keynes) must therefore be tested as complete statements: one true fragment cannot make an entire option correct. A candidate should first lock the title to its writer, then check the language, and finally use 1988 as a chronological cross-check. A common examination trap is to confuse an author’s nationality with the language of composition, or a translation date with first publication. Revision takeaway: remember the compact chain “The Shadow Lines — Amitav Ghosh — English — 1988,” and connect it with Sea of Poppies for stronger recall. This evidence establishes the bibliographic relationship required in this Books and Authors item. A correct solution must preserve the exact title, author, publication context, language, award or comparison requested by the stem. Similar periods, genres or national traditions do not make two book–author pairs interchangeable. Option A gives The Shadow Lines — Shashi Tharoor and satisfies the wording of the question. The remaining choices—An Era of Darkness — Shashi Tharoor, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind — Yuval Noah Harari and The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money — John Maynard Keynes—do not satisfy the complete requirement.