The IndiaBookStore blog
The queerest thing which strikes the mind when one starts this collection of fictions by Anita Desai is perhaps the name, ‘The Artist of Disappearance’. However the novellas, through every taste of the myriad emotions they accompany, justify it in the best possible manner.
“They started it” is all Peter Haughton says after entering his high school armed with a gun, and killing several of his schoolmates while grievously injuring many more. Jodi Picoult who is known for presenting controversial and morally challenging issues through her novels, continues the tradition with “Nineteen minutes” in which she deals with a high-school shooting tragedy.
Sugar, spice and everything nice, is the variety of life… well… companionship, compromise and memories, are the varieties of love! Every love story will give you a bit of tragedy and plenty of romance. But Erich Segal’s Love Story gives you an additional bonus of how an actual romantic relationship should be.
Mitchell David a.k.a Mitch Albom is an American author, also ventured into other creative fields as a musician, journalist, screenwriter, dramatist, radio host and television broadcaster. He’s the man with inspirational creation.
I am glad I picked up ‘The Pregnant King’ by Devdutt Pattnaik one day just randomly cruising along the racks of a bookstore. Though I started reading it only after I heard a friend praise ‘Jaya’, by the same author. Reading Devdutt Pattnaik is like listening to an old, wrinkly favorite grandma; who recites the tales of Rajas and Ranis of old, old times, with love and infusing wisdom.
Assassinations and mysterious deaths of political figures have always been a popular subject for novelists around the world. Mohammed Hanif in his debut novel, revisits the suspicious circumstances in which General Zia-ul-Haq was killed.
Aravind Adiga – It was just that name that beckoned me to read “Last Man in Tower”. The “Man Booker Prize” raised Adiga to the zenith of popularity and deemed an eternal popularity to all of his future works. “The White Tiger”, an excellent debut novel is one my favorite reads (made me roll over in mirth, many a time).
I am in a flight from Ahmedabad to Hyderabad, and fortunately unfortunately the only book I have in my bag is “The President is coming” by Anuvab Pal. I vaguely remember seeing the few glimpses of the movie based on this book featuring Konkona Sen Sharma, so I am already a little biased towards the book, as my favorite actress chose to act in a movie based on it.
To be honest, I hadn’t heard the name before, Ismat Chughtai, though it sounded vaguely familiar. So I gladly picked up her “memoirs”—no, I wouldn’t define the book as an autobiography—more so because it is the work of an Indian woman, trying to create an identity for herself in a time when it not only seemed difficult, but improbable.
Erich Maria Remarque, a World War I veteran and a Lost Generation artist, wrote his most famous novel All Quiet on the Western Front as a testament to a generation that was lost in the ravages of the Great War. Despite being capturing an event that has receded far back into history and the subject of a terrible waste of young lives, to which the world today seems to be desensitized, it is pertinent.