Kim (1901) by Rudyard Kipling is the story of a boy coming of age in colonial India. Kipling grew up in India himself, and the sheer richness of the many cultures that Kim experiences as he travels across India and up into the lower Himalayas with a Tibetan llama is mind-blowing. Meanwhile Kim is drawn into the "Great Game" of spying between the European powers. It's a deeply moving and beautiful book. Best of all, you can download it for free in all the major ebook formats!