2023 - Comfortably Numb

Book review: The Half Known Life by Pico Iyer

The Half-known Life, In Search of Paradise by Pico Iyer. Penguin Books. The gifted writer sets out in search of a paradise on earth as well as in the mind. No prizes for guessing where the true paradise is to be found, of course. Iyer gets in a deeply reflective state of mind as he…

Book review: Ambapali by Tanushree Podder

The courtesan`s story Historical fiction has been having its day in the sun for some time now and the story of Ambapali has been considered so fascinating that it has spawned books, movies, as well as a television serial. In this retelling, Tanushree Podder does more than justice to this familiar story which translates here…

Book review: Spare by Prince Harry

The Spare strikes back So here are the facts as we know it: The book flew off the shelves in the prince`s home country, as fast as that other Harry`s broomstick on the Quidditch field, selling 1. 4 million copies on its launch day itself. That it`s one big whinge-fest from a seriously troubled not-so-young…

Column: Getting into all kinds of stuff

Getting into all kinds of stuff Tell me something. Is it just me or have you too noticed a recent trend where one word is freely and frequently misused? I`m talking about the word `into` used as a preposition. For far too many years, I`d been introduced at parties as my husband`s missus, who was…

Book review: Way of the Witch by Ipsita Roy Chakraverti

The Wiccan way Everything you wanted to know about witchcraft, says the tagline, and India`s First Wiccan delivers on that promise. Long credited for bringing the practice of Wicca out of the fog of ignorance, superstition and calumny, Ipsita lays it all out in this book, as clear as the crystals Wiccan use in their…

Book review: Please Look After Mother by Kyung-Sook Shin

PLEASE LOOK AFTER MOTHER by Kyung-Sook Shin. Hachette India Books. Alright, I`ll confess: I picked this book up only because of the buzz that has surrounded it ever since it released a decade ago. Written by one of South Korea`s most widely read writers, a million-copy bestseller, winner of the Man Asian literary prize, the…

Photo feature: Kochi, Biennale sidelights

Sidelights at the Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2022-23 All photos by Sheila Kumar and subject to copyright.

Guest column: What`s in a name?

What`s in a name? What`s in a name? A lot of aspirations, apparently. Before this becomes a scattershot viewpoint, let me specify that I`m talking only about names bestowed on buildings new and old. It began in a mild benign manner. Apartment blocks of modest rise that came up beside the fast shrinking lakes of…

Book review: Black River by Nilanjana Roy

Crime and punishment Is this book a police procedural? Classic urban/rural noir fiction? A reflective look at all the elliptical loops around a crime? Actually, Nilanjana Roy`s Black River is all that. With this work, Roy brings to a crime fiction debut all the skill she employed in her delightful cat books The Wildings and…

Book review: Silverview by John le Carre

SILVERVIEW by John le Carre. Penguin Books. The twenty-sixth and `last complete book` from the late great le Carre is, as expected, a good read. But I wouldn’t say it is among his best. Here the protagonist Edward /Florian begins life on the page as a shadowy figure and stays that way all through to…