Comfortably Numb

Sheila Kumar's Storehouse

Book Look: Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene

OUR MAN IN HAVANA by Graham Greene. Penguin Books. So. How does this black comedy, this satirical send-up of the world of espionage measure up many many years after it was written by the Master in 1958? Very well, I would say. The story of how a hapless British  vacuum cleaner salesman in Havana was…

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Book review: Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan

SMALL THINGS LIKE THESE by Claire Keegan. Faber Books. This slim volume punches way, way above its weight, and leaves the reader full of emotions, the way a really good book does. The story takes us to a small village in Ireland where people are all eking out an extremely hard living in extreme weather…

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Book review: City on Fire by Zeyad Khan

This is a memoir, a political novel, a coming-of-age story. In his debut work, journalist Zeyad Khan casts a largely dispassionate eye at his hometown Aligarh; the gaze kindling to warmth and affection as the book progresses. Look at the way he introduces us to Aligarh, a city of a million people in western UP,…

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Book review: Chronicle of an Hour and a Half by Saharu Nusaiba Kannanari

Prelude to a riot In his debut work,  sets the mise-en-scene at a measured pace, introducing the reader to the various characters of Vaiga village in the foothills of the Western Ghats, with the rain in the vanguard of the cast. Even for Kerala, this is torrential rain,  pouring down relentlessly, bringing down trees, old…

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Book review: This is Salvaged by Vauhini Vara

Rooted in reality Vauhini  Vara’s debut, ‘The Immortal King Rao,’ a Finalist for the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, was, simply put, an amazing book. As a work  of speculative fiction, it had an imagined world of impressive proportions. In this, her second book, a collection of short stories firmly rooted in reality,  Vara  changes…

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Book review: Kashmir by Manreet Sodhi Someshwar

Hellfire in a heavenly valley With Kashmir, Manreet Sodhi Someshwar ends her moving Partition Trilogy. The first book Lahore dealt with the conflagration that flared up in the northwestern part of a then unified India at the time of Partition, and the many innocents that conflagration consumed, even as Jawaharlal Nehru, Vallabhbhai Patel and Lord…

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Book review: The Sweet Life in Paris by David Lebovitz

The Sweet Life in Paris by David Lebovitz. Broadway Books. Released in 2009. This book is delightful. The tagline reads: delicious adventures in the world`s most glorious – and perplexing – city. Which to the perceptive reader, makes it clear there`s no needless snark or sarcasm involved about being an American chef who relocated to…

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Book review: Prophet Song by Paul Lynch

A dirge for our times The political becomes the intensely personal in this brilliant book which has just won the Booker Prize for 2023. The dark allegorical story shows us a dystopian version of Ireland in the near future with a populist right-wing government at the helm. While set in Ireland, it reflects multiple political…

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Book review: The Mistress of Bhatia House By Sujatha Massey

The woman of substance returns The Mistress of Bhatia House by Sujatha Massey,  the newest book in the Perveen Mistry series,  is set in pre-Independence India, has a clutch of interesting female characters, and draws the reader into a world that is enjoyably brush-stroked as well as focussed at the same time. This book follows…

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Book review: Western Lane by Chetna Maroo

The many ways of dealing with grief Chetna Maroo`s Western Lane was on the Booker Prize 2023 longlist, then moved to the shortlist. This slim debut book, the story of a squash prodigy named Gopi and how her family of two sisters and a father cope with the enveloping sorrow of losing their mother and…

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