With the publication of Unaccustomed Earth, Jhumpa Lahiri, the subtle chronicler of the Bengali immigrant diaspora, has reached an important literary milestone. Dislocation of identity on account of migration is more a backdrop than a force holding centre stage in…
Narcopolis by Jeet Thayil – A Review
“I don't miss you. I don't miss you when I open a window and light fills the room like water pouring into a paper cup, or when I hear a woman's white dress shine like new coins and I know…
Aerogrammes by Tania James — A Review
Tania James is a quiet writer of human disquiet. Her stories are peopled by the scarred, the alienated, the damaged and the bereaved. Many are émigrés, often Indian, caught between identities and struggling with the demands of assimilation; others are…
An Owl Reflects
I was born before I was born. All owls are. True to the species, my fate was chiselled on ancient rocks by comets hurled from alien space. No one could change it after that, not even God. Certainly not Father.…
Boats on Land by Janice Pariat — A Review
Boats on Land is a bewitching journey into the Khasi heartland, told through a string of stories spanning more than a century. They unfold amid the deep bond between a people and their landscape, in a culture shaped by forces…
It Happened to a Wobbly-legged Boy
Many years ago, when time had still not shrivelled my Mother and I was still a shy little boy, I was struck by a bout of measles. The only memory of the suffering that has survived the quicksand of consciousness…
The Red House – A Review
‘Prayer, faith, redemption, consolation, how did you hold the world together without these things?’ -The Red House The Red House by Mark Haddon is not just another ‘stream-of-consciousness’ novel out to spill the emotions of its characters on the freeway…
The Casual Vacancy: A Boatload of Miseries
Far, far away from the enchanted lands of Hogwarts and the sweep of magic wands, the author of Harry Potter tales has summoned a sordid world into existence on the terra firma of lowlife in The Casual Vacancy. So fiercely…
The Sense of an Ending — A Review
Unlike scenes in a cinema, life that fades away into the past is not available for playback. Recollections are a collage of overlapping images, colours fading into sepia, hues draining into grey, realities crisscrossing and blurring with wistful fiction. Like…
In Other Rooms, Other Wonders – A Review
‘In Other Rooms, Other Wonders’ is a collection of short stories by Daniyal Mueenuddin, some of which have been previously published in The New Yorker and other journals. The eight faintly interlinked stories depict a feudal world in its dying…
The Immigrant – A Review
Sun sets early on eligible girls in the matrimonial bourses of India. Those blessed with boundless beauty or in affluent lineage may nudge the timeline further by a few odd years, but rarely for long. Nina’s lush hair and pinkish…
Just Married, Please Excuse – A Review
There go the wedding bells for a cute IIM alumnus, oven-fresh from classes, peddling soaps and detergents for an MNC! Déjà vu? Let’s find out. We enter the story through a scene where the thirty years old beau of a…
One Grain Amongst the Storm 