Literary Review - Comfortably Numb

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: The Blue Women by Anukrti Upadhyay

Compartmentalised lives Anukrti Upadhyay is back with a fresh cache of short stories that effectively proves her earlier acclaimed work Kintsugi was no flash in the pan. There are a dozen short stories in this volume, all of them imbued with the characteristic quietude we have come to associate with this writer. When things —…

Book review: The Swap by Shuma Raha

Love, sex and dhokha ‘Soon to be a major web series,’ a blurb announces on the cover of The Swap by Shuma Raha. Within a couple of chapters into the story, which deals with two couples whose lives get remarkably intertwined, the reader sees that the book would translate very well onto celluloid, offering an…

Book review: The Strawberry Thief by Joanne Harris

In her latest book, Joanne Harris brings back Lansquenet-sous-Tannes` friendly neighbourhood witch, Vianne Rocher. Vianne`s making and scrying with chocolate again; her elder daughter Anouk has stayed behind in Paris and the younger girl Rosette is now a silent sixteen. She believes that her Maman has made a sinister pact with the wind and let…

Book review: Ayesha At Last by Uzma Jalaluddin

The Bennett bibis of Toronto All the familiar drama with some desi spice. Here comes the latest P & P tweak, in the wake of a multitude of literary and cinematic adaptations of that Jane Austen classic. In Uzma Jalaluddin’s ‘Ayesha at Last,’ the Bennet family`s trials and tribulations are given a culture tweak, and…

Book review: Hush A Bye Baby by Deepanjana Pal

When the cradle falls Deepanjana Pal`s Hush A Bye Baby (Juggernaut Publishers) is a police procedural where the action shifts focus continually amongst a small group of participants, rather like an Agatha Christie mystery. Mumbai socialite and gynaecologist Dr Nandita Rai (we get a cracker of an intro to her) stands accused of female…

Book review: Moonglow by Michael Chabon

Memory chaser Price 12.99 Pounds Sterling. Michael Chabon’s Moonglow is a feel-good story with darkness at its heart. Chabon, a novelist who has frequently moved between themes and genres, presents this as a family memoir. Then again, given the many literary flourishes contained within, the reader could be forgiven for thinking this…