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Book review: U-turn and Other Stories by Gauri Shankar Raina, trs by Pankaj Bhan

Gentle tales from the vale U-turn and Other Stories is a curation of Kashmiri tales written by Hindi/English/Kashmiri writer and filmmaker Gauri Shankar Raina and translated by Pankaj Bhan. Quite a few of the stories are situated in Jammu, which one doesn’t find too often in books on and from Kashmir, the focus usually being on…

Book review: The Scratch and Sniff Chronicles by Hemangini Dutt Majumder

A delicious twist of Bangla Goth This debut novel takes the old trope of Bengali Gothic literature, contemporizes it deftly, and serves up a whodunnit that is some parts funny, some parts macabre, all parts engaging. We are dropped without ceremony into the lives of the Chaterges (yes, you read that spelling right) a woman…

Book review: Wayel Kati by Linthoi Chanu

Guardians of the realm First the good news. The story of the Divine Scissors of Justice, Wayel Kati, is a composite of various folk tales from Manipur that combines all the hero/villain/monsters/protectors/desecrators tropes, and produces a very interesting tale. The list of protagonists is headed by Atingkok, the Father God in the form of an…

Book review: What the Rains Foretold by N. Mohanan

When the past finally catches up Mohanan`s story What the Rains Foretold (Innalathe Mazha) is a retelling of a popular Kerala folklore, which involves the growth trajectory of a young Brahmin man named Vararuchi who turns his back on the position of king`s Royal Pundit and all the comfort that entails, to head off into…