fiction - Comfortably Numb

Book excerpts: Joseph Anton by Salman Rushdie

The Great Writer is an agent provocateur of the first water. And what an ego! The reader flinches at all he throws at Wife Number 2; winces as his relationship with Wife Number 1 sours; cringes at his derisive description of Wife Number Three as the Illusion. And yet, there are great big tranches of…

Book review: Family Life by Akhil Sharma

Akhil Sharma’s Family Life is so direct, so honest, it takes the reader aback. Straddling the thin line between fiction and memoir, Sharma gives us an unflinching account of how the Mishras, an ordinary family, migrate to the United States and even as things begin to look up for them, catastrophe strikes. The narrator’s older brother Birju…

Book review: A God in Every Stone by Kamila Shamsie

I finally got around to reading Kamila Shamsie’s A God In Every Stone. This is the kind of book you read slowly, savouring a certain turn of phrase, stopping to appreciate a certain twist to the story, and generally absorbing it all at a measured pace. That feels right, too, because the story moves at…

Book review: The Sleepwalker`s Guide to Dancing by Mira Jacob

Family matters The Indian reader should be forgiven for rolling her eyes soon after she starts to read The Sleepwalker`s Guide to Dancing by Mira Jacob (Bloomsbury India). Because the story seems to faithfully check all the little boxes that serve as bullet points for the Diaspora novel. Immigrants transitioning awkwardly, check. Father, white collar…

Book review: Noon Tide Toll by Romesh Gunasekera

Noon Tide Toll by Romesh Gunasekera (Penguin Books). If it`s Romesh Gunasekera, you know you are in for a dashed good read, a moving read, and this book is no exception. Using the driver of an old Toyota vanVasantha as his mouthpiece, Gunasekera crafts 14 short stories of Sri Lanka as it is today. Vasantha…

Book review: The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher by Hilary Mantel

Hilary Mantel`s new collection of shorts is provocatively titled The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher, (HarperCollins UK) and arguably the story by that name is the best read. There are ten stories, all of them full of what we know as Mantelisms…furniture is described as wilful, someone`s virginity is a wan one, someone leaving Jeddah is…

Book review: Fairy Tales at Fifty by Upamanyu Chatterjee

An unspooling yarn First up, a stray thought. If this were a film, it would be what is called a ‘horrex’ film, a horror plus sex admixture. Upamanyu Chatterjee approaches the heart of his story in a roundabout manner. He introduces a character whose relevance is clearly apparent but his link to Pashupati’s family less…

Book review: Transgressions by Vaiju Naravane

Avalanche of secrets Adultery, betrayal, loneliness, family friction… all put together with quiet assurance. Journalist and editor Vaiju Naravane’s first book is about the troubled relationships people enter into and exit from in life. Kranti Goray is a proverbial Maharashtrian girl next door who emerges rather violently from her chrysalis, becomes something of a…

Book review: The Treasure of Kafur by Aroon Raman

More than just a treasure hunt One helping of history, one helping of fantasy and a spicy mix of adventure make for a thrilling read. In the author’s note, Aroon Raman states that he has not hesitated to play fast and loose with historical facts. This is a disarming confession, and one that has the…

Colours: A Story from Kith and Kin

Colours Green vine. Beena had just turned 22. The first time was exciting in its own way, if exciting was the precise word she was looking for. It took place at Mon…