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Book review: The Jasmine Murders by Roopa Unnikrishnan

Blood in the boondocks In her debut work, Roopa Unnikrishnan crafts an interesting murder mystery, positions it in the early Sixties, sets it in a deceptively ordinary TN small town. Of course, what we see is not what we get, and the place is a cauldron teeming with age-old taboos, seething communal tensions, secrets…

Book review: A Wonderland of Words by Shashi Tharoor

The tagline reads: Around the world in 101 essays. These essays are an `expanded and augmented` version of Shashi Tharoor`s `World of Words` column in the Khaleej Times wherein he parses the meaning of many an English word, a term, a concept, indeed of a fast evolving language itself. Stray thought: this is just the…

Book review: The Cobra`s Gaze by Stephen Alter

Where the wild things are This is such an important work, a masterclass in ecological awareness for those of us who would read, absorb, learn. In an intense effort to show us the missing link between animals, birds and humans, how we perceive other species through our umwelt or sensory bubble, project human expectations on…

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: The Greatest Enemy of Rain by Manu Bhattathiri

Flaunting their foibles Over the course of the three books he has written, this one being the fourth, Manu Bhattathiri has become the Small Town Adept. He creates interesting characters who invariably live in picturesque hamlets in Kerala, at the edge of which a river runs, meanders or flows sluggishly. Not all these characters are…

Book review: Ancient India, Culture of Contradictions by Upinder Singh

In what is easily one of the best non-fiction works to release this year, Upinder Singh’s Ancient India is aimed at a reading audience with an interest in history, the curiosity to compare ancient and modern, or to just read more about India’s backstories. It throws a clear light on its point of focus: the…

Book review: The Oracle of Karuthupuzha by Manu Bhattathiri

Of human nature Over the course of three books, Savithri’s Special Room and Other Stories, The Town That Laughed, and now The Oracle of Karuthupuzha, Manu Bhattathiri has spun into being the little hamlet of Karuthupuzha somewhere in Kerala, peopled it with a fair share of average and eccentric denizens, and regularly stirred up little storms in…

Book review: It`s a Wonderful Life by Ruskin Bond

IT`S A WONDERFUL LIFE: Roads to Happiness by Ruskin Bond, Aleph Books. So, before the cynics (and yes, there are a few about) go into a spasm of eye-rolls at this latest offering from the Ruskin Bond factory, I need to say this: so, yes, not all the short pieces featured in this book are…

Book review: Which Of Us Are Aryans, essays by Romila Thapar, Michael Witzel, Jaya Menon, Kai Frieze, Razib Khan

My Wednesday review (because life must follow some kind of routine even in these terrible times): WHICH OF US ARE ARYANS? Rethinking the Concept of our Origins. Romila Thapar, Michael Witzel, Jaya Menon, Kai Frieze, Razib Khan. Aleph Books. This book ventures into that thorny thicket of (our) Aryan identity which, as one…

Book review: Prelude to a Riot by Annie Zaidi

PRELUDE TO A RIOT by Annie Zaidi, Aleph Books. Zaidi throws out a taut line which the reader grasps, holds on to, and never lets go till the last page is turned. The book is an elegy — in prose — to communal hatred, to the damage wrought by communal hatred. This…