How Much of these Hills is Gold

‘How Much of These Hills is Gold’ is an adventure tale, a novel about a family, bound and divided by its memories. Longlisted for The 2020 Booker Prize, this novel marks Zhang’s debut. The protagonists of the story are Lucy and Sam, 12 and 11, children of Chinese labourers, who are carrying the body of their newly deceased father across a harsh landscape after their arrival in the US during the Gold Rush in the 19th century. The two oscillate between the American West and their memories of China, as understood through their mother’s eyes.

Bearing a strong autobiographical imprint are poems from Punjabi poet Balbir Madhopuri’s ‘My Caste, My Shadow’. He speaks of his family — father, mother, wife, daughter — and his poetry. He connects it all with the country, the various underlying socio-economic and political connotations — all of it coming from his experience as a Dalit, who is a poet. The anthology contains a selection of poems from his earlier works: ‘Maruthal Da Birkh’ (The Desert Tree, 1992) and ‘Bhakhda Patal’ (Smouldering Underworld, 1998), besides some unpublished verses.

Originally serialised in a Bengali monthly periodical ‘Mouchak’, the book is a politico-historical narrative on the transfer of power in Kashmir. It recounts how the erstwhile princely state of Jammu and Kashmir acceded to India under the threat of invasion by Pakistan-supported troops. Depicting political manoeuvring, palace intrigue and valiant battle tactics, the critically acclaimed Bengali original ‘Jhelum Nodir Tirey’ is presented to a wider audience in this contemporary English translation.

Here comes a “minute-by-minute” account of the chain of events that led to the controversial encounter at Batla House from the former cop who helmed the operation. In September 2008, five blasts killed at least 30 people and injured over 100 in Delhi. A week later, Karnal Singh, ex-IPS officer, was to lead an operation at Batla House where terrorists suspected of carrying out the blasts were hiding. What followed was an encounter that stirred a political storm, instigated a witch-hunt and remains a controversial topic even today. This is Karnal’s version of the “operation”.

Pulitzer-Prize winning and widely translated author Richard Ford is out with his new book, a collection of stories about disappointment, ageing, grief and love set against the heady backdrop of Irish America. The nine stories, earthily humane and profoundly wise, are about men, women and the gulfs that lie between them. A prominent figure in contemporary US literature, Ford’s novel ‘Independence Day’ won the Pulitzer and the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, the first book to win both awards.

A former journalist based in the US, Rituparna Chatterjee’s ‘The Water Phoenix’ is a memoir of childhood abuse, healing and forgiveness. Shipped off to a trusted relative following the death of her mother at the age of five, she found herself bullied, sexually abused… With this narrative, Chatterjee hopes to open minds and broaden the narrative on the all-too common tragedy of child sexual abuse. Her first book, ‘An Ordinary Life’, was based on the life of actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui.

Manreet Sodhi Someshwar’s books have somehow always engaged with history. Her latest work, ‘Girls and the City’, is, however, a departure of sorts, a contemporary story navigating the lives of three women — an ambitious yet naïve Juhi Jha, a talented and tenacious single mother Leela Lakshmi and Reshma Talwar, a hotshot young executive. Some big little lies, a rainy night in Bengaluru and a murder change the course of life just as they had begun to bond.