Drunk on Death, Destruction and Dystopia- Review of Your Utopia by Bora Chung
Rahul Vishnoi reviews Your Utopia by Bora Chung, translated from Korean by Anton Hur (published by Hachette India, 2024). The spiritual sequel to Bora Chung and Anton Hur’s massively successful (both critically and commercially) magnum opus Cursed Bunny is heavily drunk on death, destruction and dystopia, and we are not complaining! It takes the readers […]
A Princess on an Adventure in Mughal India: Vagabond Princess: The Great Adventures of Gulbadan by Ruby Lal
Rahul Vishnoi reviews Vagabond Princess: The Great Adventures of Gulbadan by Ruby Lal (published by Juggernaut, 2024). It was in 1997, at the British Library of London, that Ruby Lal came face to face with a book written by an adventurous princess forgotten by time. Gulbadan, daughter of Humayun, was hailed by historians as the […]
Lined with the Patina of Overbearing Sadness and Astounding Cruelty: Gold Diggers by Sanjena Sathiyan Review
Rahul Vishnoi reviews Gold Diggers by Sanjena Sathiyan (published by HarperCollins India, 2021). Gold Diggers is a thorough deconstruction and dissection of the American dream of Indian immigrants. In a way, it is this generation’s The Namesake. Neil and Anita are neighbours in Atlanta, both under the concrete-esque pressure to fulfil (their parents’) American dream, […]
An Engaging Blend of Historical Fiction and Mystery in Harini Srinivasan’s Shadows and Secrets
Sourima Rana reviews Shadows and Secrets by Harini Srinivasan (published by TreeShade Books, 2024). Set in ancient India during the Gupta Empire, Harini Srinivasan paints a vibrant tapestry of the socio-cultural milieu of that time and age. Like the golden cover of the book, that period of Indian history is often known as the Golden […]
A Relic by the Sea by Urmi Chakravorty
The sea gives back all it takes, you had told me once, as we stood on a large boulder, looking out into the twilight sea. It was our favourite spot, our boulder – a slate grey, oval piece of ancient rocks, smoothed to perfection by centuries of weathering. The sun was a fiery ball of […]
A Fascinating Story of the Indian Freedom Struggle and Personal Growth in The Red Munia by Kamini Puri
Neha Kirpal reviews The Red Munia by Kamini Puri (published by StoryMirror, 2024). The Red Munia is the debut book of New Delhi-based author Kamini Puri. The book’s title refers to a deep red bird found in parts of India, which is sadly caged for its beauty—much like India, which ironically remained for over two […]
Rudyard Kipling’s Masterpiece: Without Benefit of Clergy
Zoeb Matin reviews Without Benefit of Clergy by Rudyard Kipling from the collection Phantom Rickshaw and Other Eerie Tales. There are six stories in the collection titled (for the most part, rather astutely) The Phantom Rickshaw and Other Eerie Tales and it is something of a testament to Rudyard Kipling’s versatility, at least, that the […]
Why I Don’t Agree With the Booker…: Cursed Bunny by Bora Chung Review
Rahul Vishnoi reviews Cursed Bunny by Bora Chung, translated from Korean by Anton Hur (Hachette India, 2023). Cursed Bunny is a surprise runaway superhit of the year 2022 when it was longlisted and then shortlisted for the International Booker Prize. It lost to our very own Geetanjali Shree’s Tomb of Sand, translated by Daisy Rockwell. […]
Exploring Choices, Consequences, and Interwoven Fates in Dharini Bhaskar’s Like Being Alive Twice
Sneha Pathak reviews Like Being Alive Twice by Dharini Bhaskar (published by Penguin Viking, 2024). Dharini Bhaskar’s second novel, Like Being Alive Twice, is intertextual in its very structure. It is a love story, a speculative novel, and dystopian fiction all rolled into one. And then it also asks its readers a philosophical question—do choices […]
Behind the Pages: Capturing an Unlikely Friendship with The Cooking of Books by Ramachandra Guha
Rahul Vishnoi reviews The Cooking of Books by Ramachandra Guha (published by Juggernaut, 2024). A person with a literary mindset will always be partial towards knowing the writer behind the books they have been reading. And this is what The Cooking of Books, the latest Ramachandra Guha book, gives its readers: a behind-the-scenes account of […]
