Book Reviews - Comfortably Numb

Comfortably Numb

Sheila Kumar's Storehouse

Books: Learning to Talk by Hilary Mantel

LEARNING TO TALK, Henry Holt Books, is the just released US edition of a set of short stories Hilary Mantel wrote in 2003. There are just seven short stories in this slim volume but let me tell you something: it takes a long time to traverse the worlds in those stories, to digest the emotions…

Book review: Where My Feet Fall by Duncan Minshull

Paeans to the pleasures of walking This collection of walking stories quite lives up to the book`s irresistible title. All twenty contributors, including some names familiar to readers in the sub-continent like Pico Iyer, Kamila Shamsie and Keshava Guha, write crisp pieces on where their feet fall by routine/with deliberation/some getting over a reluctance to…

Book review: The Inner Light by Sumaa Tekur

THE INNER LIGHT by Sumaa Tekur. Hay House Books. This book is a neat hand-holder for those who wish to get in touch with their latent spirituality, those who wish to find their place of calm, those who are curious about the topic and wish to know more. As also for those who are seekers…

Book review: Valli by Sheela Tomy

The luckless land Sometimes, things come together in the most beautiful manner. A writer writes a powerful story in a regional language, part allegory, part homily, wholly eco-fiction. Then along comes a translator who reads the book in the original language and reaches out to the author, offering to translate it into English. And thus,…

Book review: Breaking Free by Vaasanthi

The secrets of their lives In our choices lie our fate. And so it is with Kasturi and Lakshmi, the two women protagonists in this book. Both women are born into a devadasi clan. Kasturi concentrates on her talent as a dancer and makes peace with being a devadasi. Lakshmi rebels against it, strives to…

Book review: Chrysalis by Neetha Raman

CHRYSALIS by Neetha Raman (Ukiyoto Press) is the sweet coming- of- age story of an LA-based trust fund heiress, a TamBrahm girl who is compelled by circumstances to return to Chennai for a year, take over her grandfather`s media empire, come to terms with the sense of loss she still feels about her parents` death,…

Book review: The Promise by Damon Galgut

THE PROMISE by Damon Galgut. Penguin UK Books. Halfway through the book, the protagonist makes a statement: But a promise is a promise. And this 2021 Booker Prize-winning book by South African writer Damon Galgut has that promise as its pivot. A promise made to a dying wife by her distraught husband, that their longtime…

Book review: Chronicles of the Lost Daughters by Debarati Mukhopadyay

Women who wield the narach Simply put, translations of regional literature is a gift that keeps on giving. Arunava Sinha’s translation of Narach, the best-selling Bengali novel, is one such addition to the pantheon. The English title of Debarati Mukhopadhyay’s book is Chronicle of the Lost Daughters, and is a story about women and everything…

Book review: Girl A by Abigail Dean

Many years after the trauma…. Every so often a book is declared a publishing sensation. Sometimes it is a debut novel, sometimes it is a thriller and very often, it has `girl` in its title. Like Gone girl and The Girl on the Train. The book then sells for huge sums after multi-way auctions, film…

Book review: Tripping by C K Meena

TRIPPING by CK Meena, e-book. Readers of CK Meena`s regular City Lights column of yore in The Hindu will need no introduction to her wry and witty observations on life. In Tripping, she has put all that humour to great use, resulting in many LOL moments for the reader. Tripping is a travelogue detailing a…