‘Alms in the Name of a Blind Horse’ by Gurdial Singh
This book is an artistic treatment of lives at the margins Gurdial Singh is one of the towering figures in Indian, not only Punjabi, literature. His fiction deals with the everydayness of life, and discusses the neglected, unseen, and unheard voices. Alms in the Name of a Blind Horse is one such celebration of a […]
Desirable Daughters: A Diaspora Family Novel
Desirable Daughters by Bharati Mukherjee frequently pops up in lists of Best Indian Books Written in English or Set in America or Books You Should Read if You Love Diaspora Literature. A lot of reviews compared it to The Joy Luck Club. I’d been meaning to pick it up for a while- the blurb spoke […]
At the tipping point: Megha Majumdar’s A Burning
Although a novel that opens with a train burning might somewhat naturally bring to mind the Gujarat pogrom following the Godhra train burning in February 2002, Megha Majumdar’s acclaimed debut, A Burning, does not deal with the complexities of a rioting state. Instead, Majumdar uses the incident of the train burning as a point of […]
Yajnaseni: The Story of Draupadi by Pratibha Ray
Translated from Odia by Pradip Bhattacharya Like many Indian households I grew up on a staple diet of mythological stories from Ramayana and Mahabharata. With the stories narrated and watched on screen- Draupadi, Yajnaseni , Panchali or Krishnaa – no matter what you called her, Draupadi’s story right from her birth to swayamvara to a […]
Voices in the Valley by Suravi Sharma Kumar
Suravi Sharma Kumar’s Voices in the Valley is a book that takes its readers to the beautiful yet angst-ridden state of Assam and covers a period of almost 50 years in the life of the state as well as the novel’s protagonist Millie, as she moves from being a young girl to a nuanced politician. […]
Kith and Kin by Sheila Kumar
Sheila Kumar’s Kith and Kin is a collection of nineteen short stories centred on the Melekat family – an upper-caste Nair family from Kerala, all related through the matriarch Ammini Amma. In this short volume, Kumar explores how families might lead separate lives, but are ultimately bound together – in this case, by Ammini Amma […]
Ep. 25: Waiting for the Dust to Settle with Veio Pou
In this episode of India Booked, host Ayushi Mona talks to Veio Pou, about his brilliant new debut novel, Waiting for the Dust to Settle, published by Speaking Tiger Books. Set in Manipur, Waiting for the Dust to Settle is a moving novel about the human cost of the violence that the Naga. Mona and […]
Waiting For The Dust To Settle by Veio Pou
In 1947, the new entity known as “India” officially became a sovereign state, gladly relinquishing its former ‘British colony’ status. And that is where the story ends. At least according to most history books. Yet the truth was that the many different cultures and languages that makeup “India” were not completely in favour of joining […]
Fishing for love in Chemmeen
Chemmeen is written by T.S. Pillai and translated from Malayalam by Narayana Menon Set in the “tiny fishing villages of Kerala on the southwest coast” (in this case, Nirukunnam and Trikunnapuzha) Chemmeen, meaning ‘shrimp’, by Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai, is the quintessential tragedy, flavoured with salt and suspense, raw fish and relationships, and the intimate relationship […]
Colours of Loneliness and other stories by Paramita Satpathy
What is it that you think of when you have a collection of short stories in your hand? There is vigour, excitement and most importantly a light allure of fascination for something that is indirectly entwined and makes you hop from one story to another. But, Satapathy’s Colours of Loneliness is a sharp contrast, in […]
