Qabar

HAVING shot to fame among English readers in the country with her contemporary classic ‘Hangwoman’, author KR Meera’s new novel, ‘Qabar’, tells hard truths about the intertwined histories of Hindus and Muslims as well as the chasms between men and women. Originally written in Malayalam in 2020, the slim book has been translated by Nisha Susan. A temple is slated to rise at the site of Babri Masjid in Ayodhya. At the same time, voices begin to rise from a ‘qabar’, a grave in a small town in Kerala, insisting that verdicts are not always solutions.

“THE way Aligarh participates in various walks of national life will determine the place of Muslims in Indian national life. The way India conducts itself towards Aligarh will largely… determine the form that our national life will acquire in the future,” former President Zakir Hussain had said while summing up the varsity’s roadmap. Through this book, Mohammed Wajihuddin attempts to evaluate the movement that Sir Syed Ahmad Khan initiated with AMU. It takes one through the 100-year journey marked by several challenges, internal dilemmas and outside pressures.

A MOTHER and a son — caught between the past, the present and the future. It has been a year since Renu lost her husband, but finds herself wondering if, 35 years ago, she chose the wrong life. Akash is in Illinois to say the final goodbye, but finds himself confronting his darkest secrets. As the past comes calling, both must decide whether they want to dwell in the past or the life that they have created. First-generation American author Neel Patel’s debut novel is both funny as well as poignant. His first book, ‘If You See Me, Don’t Say Hi’, was an anthology.