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We hear about the animal-human conflict so often, we forget it is us who are encroaching upon their areas and not vice-versa. But not everyone is oblivious to their side of the story. Amirtharaj Christy Williams, an Asian elephant specialist, has been radio-collaring and tracking several elephants at the Rajaji National Park in Uttarakhand since the 1990s and has formed close associations with several of these pachyderms, among them Tipu, the tallest elephant ever recorded at the park. Keeping him at the centre, he pens the story of elephants, their large-heartedness, quirks, lives and struggles. A passionate advocate of wildlife conservation, the author has been working with elephants across Asia.

Pandemic-induced hibernations have sprouted books all over the world. Hillary Clinton teams up on one such novel with the more-locally read Louise Penny to save US cities from bombs planted by an evil Pakistani, a plot complicated by a traitor within the National Security Council. As the female US Secretary of State shakes down the Russian President, Iran’s Ayotollah and Pakistani PM while jetting around the world with a trusted friend, the surfeit of characters and their interlinked pasts does produce a page turner. Then there is the peek, even if through a looking glass, into the vicious catfight that takes place off-stage in the higher echelons of power.

“IT all really started on Cross Island, this glorious, insane, tragic story.” That’s how Danny Strongbow recalls his grandfather’s exploits on an island near the Bombay Docks. Charlie Strongbow, born in Bombay, was a renegade Englishman, mercenary, philosopher and schizophrenic. When India attained freedom in 1947, he began his own bizarre journey in a no man’s land in Arabian Sea. Based on his letters, this historical fiction novel tells the story of his black market trade between Southampton and Bombay, his pace threatened by memories of his past and a traumatic childhood, all giving a push to his mental illness. Godfrey Joseph Pereira pieces together this darkly story of greed, corruption and derangement
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