Book Reviews - Comfortably Numb

Comfortably Numb

Sheila Kumar's Storehouse

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…

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…

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…

Books: Best Indian Fiction of 2022

Best Indian Fiction of 2022 Even as we were emerging from the pandemic, blinking in the bright light, my reading through the year continued to be both substantial and satisfying. This is a listicle of Indian fiction of 2022 that fulfilled my one-point criterion: it touched a chord with me. Valli. Written by Sheela Tomy,…

Book review: A Case of Indian Marvels edited by David Davidar

A Case of Indian Marvels, edited by David Davidar. Aleph Books. Forty short stories from writers aged forty and under, says the blurb on the back jacket of the book. The stories have been handpicked by David Davidar, arguably one of the best connoisseurs of stories short and long, and the result is an anthology…

Book review: Cubbon Park by Roopa Pai

Cubbon Park The Green Heart of Bengaluru by Roopa Pai, Speaking Tiger Books. A neat, potted history of the 152-year-old park that is both geographically central to Bangalore and emotionally central to Bangaloreans. Pai eschews frills and furbelows to take up certain sections of the park`s history and lived-in present, the people and situations that…

Book review: Hyderabad by Manreet Sodhi Someshwar

When push came to shove In the second book of her Partition trilogy, author Manreet Sodhi Someshwar trains focus on the state that lay in India`s belly and was giving then Home Minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel a severe stomach-ache. The facts as they were, are known to all history buffs. Hyderabad was ruled (nominally, as…