Comfortably Numb

Sheila Kumar's Storehouse

Book review: The Bellboy by Anees Salim

THE BELLBOY by Anees Salim. Penguin Hamish Hamilton Books. Anees Salim sets such a  measured pace in unspooling the life and times of Latif the teenager, who is the bellboy of the book`s title, that the reader may well wonder where the author is going with this. That would be the regular reader; those familiar…

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Book review: Names of the Women by Jeet Thayil

Names of the Women by Jeet Thayil, Jonathan Cape, Penguin Random House UK. Thayil`s book is an interesting round-up of the forgotten women who formed the cohort that marched up the Mount of Calvary with the Christ and later,  sat on vigil under the Cross he was nailed to, long after his disciples had fled…

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Book review: The Heart Asks Pleasure First by Karuna Ezara Parikh

In her remarkable debut work THE HEART ASKS PLEASURE FIRST, (Picador India Books) Karuna Ezara Parikh takes the reader gently by the hand and leads them to a circular house in `Lalabad` where they meet the wonderful Gyan and Asha and their daughter Daya; then across the border to Pakistan where they meet Aaftab preparing…

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Book review: People on Our Roof by Shefali Tripathi Mehta

 Naina`s story People On Our Roof by Shefali Tripathi Mehta. Niyogi Books.  Naina, the heroine of Shefali Tripathi Mehta’s book , People On Our Roof, is a most interesting woman, someone most women will identify with. Managing a job, running a house, looking after an ailing parent and a vulnerable sibling, getting over a break-up, all…

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Book review: Blood Brothers by Chandini Santosh

Blood Brothers, A Story of Separation and Loss by Chandini Santosh. Dhauli Books. Chandini Santosh takes up the twin strands of a little village by a river  and  of the communal politics ravaging it, entwines the two,  and offers up a compelling story that warms the cockles of your  heart even as it fills you…

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Book review: Girls and the City by Manreet Sodhi Someshwar

Revenge of the city  A romance, some sleaze and a deluge impact the lives of three girls in Bangalore.  Manreet Sodhi Someshwar puts her character development skills up front in this story of how three women, from Unnao/ Mumbai/Chandigarh, try to hack a living in Bangalore. By the time the racy, pacy tale winds down…

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Book review: The Story of a Brief Marriage by Anuk Arudpragasam

The Story of a Brief Marriage by Anuk Arudpragasam, Fourth Estate/HarperCollins Books. 2017 release. So, this is a story you read at one sitting, with something small and hard lodged at the back of your throat, and be warned, that something never dissolves; not while you are reading the book, not for a while after…

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Book review: A Burning by Megha Majumdar

This is more a brief take than review. A Burning by Megha Majumdar, Penguin Hamish Hamilton Books. A story soaked in sorrow, it tells of a young girl from the slums and more importantly, from `the` minority community, who, late one night,  gives in to a moment of indiscretion via a Facebook comment, in the…

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Book review: The Women who Forgot to Invent Facebook and Other Stories by Nisha Susan

Snark Attack In her debut collection of short stories, Nisha Susan oscillates between the savage and the gentle, but never lets go of her trademark sarcasm It`s that expectations thing. It can`t be easy to be Nisha Susan debuting her book of short stories. That’s because Susan, co-founder  of The Ladies Finger and Grist Media,…

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Book review: Bombay Balchao by Jane Borges

BOMBAY BALCHAO by JANE BORGES, Tranquebar Books. Bombay Balchao is rather akin to that tangy relish Goans are so justifiably proud of, the balchao. The interlinked shorts in the book are  slice- of- life stories of a section of society with surnames like D`Lima, da Cunha, Crasto, Ferreira, Coutinho, Mascarenhas, Pinto, Gomes;  a mix of…

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