The 5 Wave, Rick Yancey, Penguin India, Rs.350.
On a lonely stretch of highway, Cassie runs. She runs from the beings that only look human. To stay alone is to stay alive until she meets Evan Walker. Beguiling and mysterious, Evan may be her only hope. Now Cassie must choose: between trust and despair, between defiance and surrender, between life and death.
For Honour, Bela Lal, Niyogi Books, Rs.250.
Honour means different things to different people. For the Khimjas, honour is the purity of their race, the continuity of their orthodox traditions, the maintenance of the rules of caste and clan.
Om Prakash Khimja, the sarpanch of the village of Angratta and the undisputed leader of the Khimjas of the village, is instrumental in the destruction of the love affair between a Khimja girl and a boy from a lower caste. But what will he do when his own daughter falls in love with a non-Khimja?
The Lonely Monarch, Sunil Gangopadhyay, Translated by Swapna Dutta, Hachette India, Rs.350.
A brilliant performer, he is loved and respected by his peers, adored by spectators and acknowledged as a master by Rabindranath Tagore himself. Yet, Sisirkumar remains passionately committed to a singular dream: to steer his audience away from the raucous melodrama that has come to be called entertainment toward an evolved enjoyment of stage performance.
Marry Go Round, Sadiqa Peerbhoy, Leadstart Publishing, Rs.145.
A determined mother using blatant emotional blackmail to inveigle her NRI son into a marriage with the right sort of desi girl; a reluctant groom with a live-in girlfriend following him all the way to India; a bride on the rebound from a disastrous liaison with a married man; skeletons rattling in old family cupboards; an aunt on the vengeance trail…this and more make Marry Go Round a combine of today’s irreverent humour and a staid Hyderabadi milieu with its Nawabi hangover from times long past.
The Wife and the Beloved and Other Stories, Ashapurna Devi, Translated by Sanjukta Das, Supernova Publishers, Rs.299.
This collection of 25 short stories, chosen from Ashapurna’s legacy of literary jewels, is a celebration of her life and works in the world of Bengali literature. The stories bring to life a society from the past and introduce us to a plethora of characters — a young man destined for an arranged marriage while pining away for romance; the erstwhile middle class who looked down in disdain upon the concept of widows’ remarriage; the tenacity with which humans trudged through the quagmire of poverty and need; the “black sheep” of the family whose pure heart remained in neglected oblivion. The stories visit and revisit many such social, economic and emotional aspects of Ashapurna Devi’s times.
It’s a City-Showman’s Show!: Transcendental Songs of Anandghan, Translated by Imre Bangha and R.C.C. Fynes, Penguin, Rs.299
The 17th century ascetic Anandghan (Cloud of Bliss) is one of the outstanding poets of Jain literature. His songs have been popular for over three centuries and remain part of the Jain devotional canon even today. The rigorous new translation mirrors the raw immediacy of Anandghan’s songs and highlights their universal appeal.
