The Royal Game and Other Stories by Stefan Zweig
Sometime last year, I started painting again. Seeing my art teacher in his element, oblivious to all distractions, I wrote a short story about the lengths an artist goes to perfect his craft. This expanded into a chapbook about the extremes of artistic expression. That project, as projects are wont to do, is gathering dust. […]
The Princes by Manohar Malgonkar
Let one thing be known; most contemporary Indian fiction (in English) is a waste of paper. It is written in ‘simple’ English, as if literature is nothing but a textbook that everyone has to understand, that everyone must follow without any effort, to be a part of the ‘I read’ rat race. It does not […]
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
If you haven’t read The God of Small Things yet, you may still have heard all about how the novel grabbed the 1997 Booker, while notoriously creating trouble in Kerala thanks to its sexual explicitness. But there is so much more than Roy’s debut novel achieves. The beauty of Roy’s creation is that it stays […]
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
Imagine rich, creamy dark chocolate, with bits of walnut and a hint of mint, layered with caramel, whipped till ultra-smooth consistency is achieved and moulded to the quirkiest of shapes. Each piece is made to look even more delectable with a dash of exotic colour and a pinch of glitter. The moment you place it […]
Guardian Angel by Julie Garwood
The life of a full-time romance reader is hardly simple. Once you have read as many novels as I have (or, frankly, even a couple dozen fewer), things seriously start to take a turn for the predictable. Nothing shocks you or surprises you and if it does, you clutch your heart harder than the book […]
On Our New Logo
When onWriting started, it was a book review blog. And when Sakhi came on board, it became a lot more than just book reviews. We decided that it would become a hub for readers, writers and publishers to talk to each other through content – their reviews, their work and their thoughts. It was a […]
The Guardians of Halahala by Shatrujeet Nath
We received a copy of this book from the author. That does not affect the review below. It is honest and unbiased. Indian fiction often seems to be lacking in two fundamental things for the larger part – scale and imagination. When I read the Meluha trilogy, I was happy at the potential the story […]
Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
My mind cannot comprehend war. I have of course seen the movies and the documentaries, and read the books by all the right authors – yet, fail to comprehend the immensity, brutality & utter meaninglessness of war. I let myself be mindlessly pumped up by jingoist fervour over a prime-time debate on television, or bay […]
The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman
April 1, 2017 I pick up a book, as part of a reading challenge. As a habit, I don’t read about the book before I’ve read it, as far as I can help it. It lies in my bag for two days before I open it on a bus journey to college. It’s a big […]
Heartless by Merissa Meyer
How I love fairy tales. And how I adore Marissa Meyer to have retold every single one of them in such a beautiful way. Meyer has completely eliminated the only complaint I have had from the fairy tales—the female protagonists, which were bound by the old patriarchy, are strong, independent and determined to have their way. […]
