Book Reviews

Here are two very different yet very similar books of poems that lay bare the very nucleus of human existence in the age of modernity

This book is also a timely reminder of the great tradition of modern ornithology, long before bird-watching got fresh wind due to the easy access to cellphone photography and electronic bird guides

The author's individual story is a micro-reflection of the story of a nation, struggling for Independence, recognition and respect.

An attempt to capture in images and words what is happening to the world around us, ‘The Green Book’ is Amitava Kumar’s third book in the series after ‘The Blue Book’ and ‘The Yellow Book’

Author Bhaichand Patel packs in quite a few characters in his slim novel for it to race forward smoothly with quite a few improbable twists

A book of criticism, ‘100 Years of A Passage to India’ goes beyond a simple, immediate critical reading of the novel

The book is set against the backdrop of a renaissance movement that swept across all castes and communities and subverted the basic fabric of a highly conservative society

‘The Legacy of Guru Dutt: 2025 Diary’ by Nasreen Munni Kabir is surprisingly insightful and delightful

Upamanyu Chatterjee’s ‘Lorenzo Searches for the Meaning of Life’ is winner of the JCB Prize for Literature 2024

Ashok Ahlawat is a loquacious ex-NDA veteran of self-confessedly middling military achievement, who deliberately, if not brazenly, flaunts his knowledge of classics in English literature, starting with Latin quotes and moving on to poet laureates, etc. Early on, he explains...

When KP Singh led the Deccan Horse contingent as an Army officer in the 1954 Republic Day parade, nobody could have imagined that he would emerge as one of India’s top business leaders. Known affectionately as KP, he says circumstances...

Devi Yesodharan’s novel masterfully captures the essence of “otherness”. It delves into the undefined gap that gnaws at the hearts of those who don’t belong, whether due to ethnicity, race, economic status, or simply not being in a place that...

While reading this book, I experience the anguish of a distinguished professor as she looks at the rise of the triumphant Hindutva, or the aggression implicit in the politics of majoritarianism and hyper-nationalism. Yes, Zoya Hasan’s new book reminds us...

Sujit Saraf’s ‘Island’ is a captivating exploration of isolation, ambition and the collision between modernity and indigenous life. Inspired by the tragic real-life encounter of American missionary John Chau with the Sentinelese in 2018, the novel reimagines this incident as...

How innocent we must seem when we don’t know our fate,” says Hanif Kureishi in ‘Shattered’. It is one of the truest lines I have read in a long time. A man is at his partner’s house in Italy, running...

Pain and suffering, the eternal woes of being mortal… How we all wish, at times, for the elixir of happiness, one that will grant us the supreme goal of contentment and free us from the cycle of desire. But what...

Madan Veera’s poetry, rooted deeply in the lived experiences of marginalised voices within Punjabi society, finds new life in English through ‘Narratives of the Excluded’, translated by TC Ghai. Spanning 85 selected poems from Veera’s five volumes published between 2001...

Past the middle of the 18th century, the East India Company had made a major stride at Plassey in its advent to the country when a king down the peninsula sought to check this imperialism. Thus, Mysore ruler Tipu Sultan...

The finest moment in Haroon Khalid’s new book is when Waris meets Bulleh Shah. Khalid’s imagination blazes, consuming and re-creating the fabled encounter. The writing is crystalline and dazzling, etching the encounter in a gem of an essay within the...

IN recent years, scholars have shown a growing interest in exploring the roots of Indian indigenous modernity, often termed “vernacular modernity”, and how it has shaped, and sometimes challenged, Indian secular democracy. In this context, ‘So Says Jan Gopal: The...

I write this from a metropolis, Delhi, caught in the thick of smog. Each year, as winter sets in, a toxic cocktail spreads through the north Indian airshed, leaving residents of the region equally vulnerable and frustrated. A cacophony of...