Book Reviews
Wanderers All
Janhavi Acharekar
An experimental novel that blurs the boundaries between historical fiction, memoir and travelogue, Wanderers, All is the story of Murlidhar Khedekar whose life plays out against the birth of a new nation in the first half of the twentieth century. Having migrated to Bombay from a small Konkan village, a young Khedekar attempts to find a place in the vibrant Marathi theatre scene of that era. When he fails to realize his ambitions as an actor, he gradually transitions from a clerk to a...
There's Something About You
Yashodhara Lal
This is not your typical boy-meets-girl story. Okay, they do meet, but there are some complications. Trish is twenty-eight. She's unemployed, overweight, single and snarky. She knows all that. And if one more person - just one more person - tries to fix her, she might explode. Sahil is thirty-five. He has superpowers. Well, kind of. He seems to think so, anyway. He's also hot (in a geeky kind of way, but still). And he plays the guitar, helps the underprivileged and talks about his feelings....
Manan
Mohit Parikh
He closes his eyes and finds today’s date floating towards him. Shimmering in the darkness, swivelling – like the text on the Windows 95 screensaver. It seeps in through his forehead and gets absorbed. 23-04-98 is now a part of him. Today’s date, a Saturday, when the first sign of what he so eagerly awaited has appeared... It is the summer of 1998 in a sleepy Indian town that is just awakening to the age of information, and young Manan has acquired his first official sign of puberty. The...
Aspyrus - A Dream of Halahala
Appupen
Appupen’s new exploration of the myths and legends of Halahala is a nightmare vision of obsession and aspiration Appupen explores new terrain in the now-familiar world of Halahala in Aspyrus: A Dream of Halahala. A nightmare vision of obsession and aspiration, Aspyrus is about the compulsion of desire, the fickleness of the idea, the futility of ownership and the treachery of free enterprise. Appupen’s masterful art and original use of the silent comics form bring alive a fever dream.
Mad in Heaven
P. G. Bhaskar
Arranged marriages or love marriages? The age-old battle continues… Priyanka Prakash is young, good looking and has a cushy bank job. What she doesn’t have is a boyfriend. Her parents are looking around for a suitable boy one whose horoscope will match hers. Meanwhile, her younger and more rebellious sister, Palak, is fighting off some serious attention from a tenacious suitor – budding politician ‘Su Ko’ Muthu. When Priyanka is introduced to Dr Ravi, both sets of parents are...
Predator-Horn OK Please
Kartik Iyengar
It was the perfect evening. She was running around, getting ready for the college reunion. He was there, and she was flushed with love. He offered her a glass of red wine … When she came to, her face was caked with blood, she was chained, her left hand was broken and every inch of her body was hurting. How, oh how, she wished she had never met him online. The mutilated body of a young woman stirs up this sleepy little vineyard town. Another girl is now missing. It has happened here before....
Gulab
Annie Zaidi
It is a warm, muggy summer’s day. Nikunj is in a Muslim cemetery to attend Saira’s burial. Saira, the long-lost love he has been looking for since the earthquake, even through all the years of his marriage, never sure what he would do if he found her. But what are Usman and Parmod doing at her grave? Who are these women – Gulab, Mumtaz – that lay claim to his Saira’s resting place? This is a love story. But what sort of relationship can you have with a dead person, and what sort of...
Love Kills
Ismita Tandon Dhanker
‘The fat constable on duty brought to my attention a sketch. Every tiny detail of the murder scene was on paper: the wilted orchids placed across her midriff, the knife balanced precariously on the low table and her dreamy eyes…’ You won’t live a boring life if you’re named after a whisky (more or less). Meet Johnny Will, named thus by an alcoholic father who died under mysterious circumstances. Johnny is the founder of Thy Will – a de-addiction centre for the rich and the famous...
The Kite Flyers
Sharad P. Paul
A humane tale of childhood friendships, painful severance and soaring, joyful redemption. Kumar and Raman are champion kite flyers, and Lakshmi makes superb barfis. The friends live and play together in the idyllic environs on the shores of the Kaveri river, learning about life from the friendly peanut seller. Till a small mistake shatters their idyllic childhood and alters the course of their lives. The story follows the three friends through the Tamil Nadu of the 1970s, with its politics...
Sorting Out Sid
Yashodhara Lal
Siddharth Agarwal a.k.a. Sid has it all a fifteen-year-long marriage, a bunch of devoted friends, and the chance to be the companys youngest-ever VP, all at the age of thirty-six But, behind the scenes, his life is slowly falling apart, what with his marriage on the rocks, parents who treat him like a delinquent child, and overly-interfering, backstabbing friends. And thats not even counting the manipulative HR vixen and the obnoxious boss he must tackle in office. So, when lovely, spunky...