Book Reviews - Comfortably Numb

Comfortably Numb

Sheila Kumar's Storehouse

Book review: Heart Lamp by Banu Mushtaq

HEART LAMP, Penguin Books, a set of short stories written by Banu Mushtaq, translated by Deepa Bhasthi. Simply put, these are some of the most moving stories I have read recently, an intimate look at the lives of Muslim women in Karnataka`s villages. These braveheart women navigate difficult-by-default lives, with the multiple chains of poverty,…

Book review: The Baby Dragon Cafe by AT Qureshi

Love amidst dragonfire Adding to the growing pantheon of easy, breezy reads is the New York based AT Qureshi`s love-and-dragons book. Be warned though: it reads young. The protagonist Saphira runs a café for people who wish to bring their baby dragons in while they relish a cuppa chai or coffee, or something more exotic…

Book review: The Outsiders by Devi Yesodharan

Looking out, looking in The migrant experience is explored through the perspective of two outsiders, in this book. One is a teacher from Kerala who comes to Dubai in the 1990s scouting better prospects. The other is a sailor who reaches the fabled lost port of Muziris in 213 CE. Both these stories deal with…

For the Love of Apricots by Madhulika Liddle

Love in the orchard Madhulika Liddle, cross-genre writer, creator of the splendid gumshoe of Mughal times, Muzzafar Jang, as well as of the ongoing Delhi Quartet series, goes off on an unexpected but sweet tangent with this book, a romance set in the Uttarakhand foothills. Why apricots, specifically? Liddle tells us that according to Armenian…

Book review: Too Good To Be True by Prajakta Koli

Much ado about nothing Prajakta Koli aka MostlySane, wears many hats and apparently wears them adroitly: she is an uber-popular digital content creator/actor/fierce advocate for social causes. And now that she has written her debut fiction, a rom-com titled Too Good to be True, you can hear the cheering from fans loud and clear. The…

Book review: Of Mothers and Other Perishables

The nature of loss and grief Much like the young girl in Alice Sebold’s book ‘The Lovely Bones’ who observes her family after she passes, the mother in this book does the same. On her untimely death, she leaves behind her husband and two daughters, yet she is very much around, an unseen, unfelt presence….

Book review: Mad about Cuba by Ullekh NP

Notes from contemporary Cuba The only thing quirky about this book is the title. In actual fact, Mad about Cuba is a compact report from the field. The tagline informs you that the author is a Malayali revisiting the revolution. And the first pic on the front jacket is one familiar to most Malayalis: that…

Book review: Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

DEMON COPPERHEAD by Barbara Kingsolver, Faber Books. I came late to the winner of last year`s Women`s Prize for Fiction and co-recipient of the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. But migawd, I just devoured the book, all 548 pages of the contemporised retelling of Dickens` tale of institutionalised poverty and its impact on children, David…

Book review: Brotherless Night by V V Ganeshananthan

BROTHERLESS NIGHT by V V Ganeshananthan, Penguin Books. So, here is another `bearing witness` story from Sri Lanka, a wrenching tale that will stay with the reader a long, long time after they have turned the last page. The tale, narrated by young Sashikala Kulenthiran takes us year on year through the terrible conflict that…

Book review: The Spoiled Heart by Sunjeev Sahota

Working class hero We are back in Sahotaland, in this his fourth book, The Spoiled Heart. His Booker shortlisted second book, The Year of the Runaways was about three migrants, the horrors that force them to leave their homeland and their struggles in the UK. In his next book, China Room, longlisted for the Booker,…