fable - Comfortably Numb

The Living Mountain by Amitav Ghosh

THE LIVING MOUNTAIN, A Fable for Our Times, by Amitav Ghosh. Fourth Estate Books. This is Ghosh, back at what he does so effectively: holding up a mirror to our acts of ecological destruction, telling us there`s still time to get our act together, to stop our marauding ways, to clean up after ourselves….

Book review: Chinese Whiskers by Pallavi Aiyar

This is more a brief take than review. Chinese Whiskers (Harper Collins) is not a new book. Dated 2010, it follows Smoke and Mirrors, author Pallavi Aiyar`s excellent dispatches from China. Chinese Whiskers is a charming tale of two Beijing cats, the gorgeous Soyabean and his slightly scruffy companion Tofu, who go to live with…

Book review: The Strange Library by Haruki Murakami

Haruki Murakami`s The Strange Library (Harvill Secker, London). Translated from the Japanese by Ted Goossen. So. Is this a fable for children and adults alike? Maybe. Is this another The Little Prince, another Alice, another Jonathan Livingston Seagull? Not really. Is this a story with a moral? Well, the jury is out on that too….

Book review: Ten Kings by Ashok Banker

Ashok Banker`s Ten Kings (Amaryllis) takes a tale from the Rig Veda, a tale of what has to be one of the most unequal battles ever, breathes nuanced flesh and blood into it, infuses it with the right amount of colour, and presents it as yet another morality tale, of how puny good can sometimes…