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FICTION 2006
Novel ways but old names
More fiction, good and bad, is published in the English language every year than a person can read in a lifetime. One way of being selective is to read books by established authors who again created ripples this year, reports
Harsh Desai as he takes a pick of the fiction published in
2006
NON-FICTION 2006
Making sense of history & society
From Shashi Joshi to Barak Obama, the focus this year seemed to be on trying to decipher trends, be they social or global.
Rajiv Lochan takes a look at the books that created a buzz
Trying to make sense of
the inexplicable has been the leitmotif of many good books this year.
Inherent in their discourse are warnings about taking the wrong turn and
getting into a historical cul-de-sac from where it might be difficult to
get out.
On a wrong track in India
Temptations of the West
by Pankaj Mishra
Picador
Pavan K Varma
Pankaj Mishra’s
first book, Butter Chicken in Ludhiana, captured brilliantly the
shoddiness and shabbiness of middle-class, middle-town India. It was in
the nature of a travelogue, and I was greatly impressed by his
descriptive powers and his ability to excavate the commonplace to expose
the pretensions of upwardly mobile Indians. After this auspicious
beginning, he wrote a book of fiction and then of biography. With his
latest offering, he has gone back to the genre he began with:
travelogue.
Teen’s bondage tale
Sudeshna Sarkar
The plight of a
13-year-old Nepalese girl, sold to an Indian brothel by her stepfather,
made it to the shortlist of a prestigious American literary award and is
spearheading an effort by the author to raise awareness among young
Americans about human trafficking.
They said it!
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