Reviews of Fiction and Non-Fiction Books by The Hindu seo.section.displayname=Book Reviews

‘The Silent Coup: A History of India’s Deep State’ review: When the security establishment serves the executive

A journalist argues that India’s ‘war on terror’ has made its security institutions more nationalistic and chauvinistc and more corrupt

‘City of Shadows: Slums and Informal Work in Bangalore’ review: Living on the margins of wealth

A writer turns her lens on inequities in Bengaluru and other high-growth cities, exploring how the urban poor survive outside gated communities and plush work enclaves

‘The Break-up of Britain: Crisis and Neo-Nationalism’ review: The British Empire falls apart at home

Tom Nairn argues that though Brexit may be the cause of the U.K.’s disintegration, there are other problems like the makeup of the British state itself

‘Empireland: How Imperialism Has Shaped Modern Britain’ review: Building wealth and an identity on colonial plunder and loot

A historian draws up the losses and gains accrued from Empire, which continue to find expression in British exceptionalism and racism

‘Rumours of Spring: A Girlhood in Kashmir’ review: Growing up under curfew

Farah Bashir recalls a traumatised adolescence in conflict-ridden Kashmir of the 1990s

‘Savarkar: A Contested Legacy, 1924-1966’ review: Hindutva’s biggest ideologue

A historian contextualises the life of Savarkar, a strident critic of both Gandhi and Nehru, by re-evaluating the details of a highly polarising figure

‘Madras inked... Impressions of an artist and an architect’ review: Window to a loved, old, old city

A book of fine black ink drawings of landmarks pays a charming tribute to Madras

‘The Power of Geography: Ten Maps that Reveal the Future of Our World’ review: Living in the age of multiple power rivalries and faultlines

Physical features shape global politics, argues Tim Marshall, and with the world order in a flux, several countries are looking to expand their influence

‘Address Book: A Publishing Memoir in the time of COVID’ review: Championing women in print

Ritu Menon on the perils and joys of being an independent publisher

‘Nehru, Tibet and China’ review: The elephant in the room

By not raising the border dispute with China while discussing Tibet, India squandered an opportunity, and that has let the issue fester, argues an MEA insider

‘Better to Have Gone: Love, Death and the Quest for Utopia in Auroville’ review: The dream of utopia and its tragic consequences

A son of Auroville narrates the Mother’s promise of eternal life, together with the suffering that is all too real and minutely observed

‘World as Family: A Journey of Multi-Rooted Belongings’ review: Banyan tree reflections

Vishakha Desai wants both India and the U.S. to reclaim the ideals of diversity, equality and tolerance

‘The Tatas, Freddie Mercury and Other Bawas: An Intimate History of the Parsis’ review: The Big Three, a distinctive community and its history

A veteran journalist chronicles the Parsis through noted families like the Tatas, Wadias, Mistrys and doctors, lawyers, musicians and rebels

‘Lady Doctors: The Untold Stories of India’s First Women in Medicine’ review: Freedom from patriarchy

India’s first women doctors pushed back against social ills and took the lonely road to fight for the right to work as individuals in their chosen fields

‘The Hunt for Mount Everest’ review: The giant among pygmies

In the centenary year of the first Everest expedition, Craig Storti chronicles the story of the key players who discovered the world’s tallest mountain

‘Rajinikanth: A Life’ review: The many lives of a superstar

A biographer traces the cinematic, spiritual and political journeys of Rajinikanth

‘Space and Beyond, Professional Voyage of K. Kasturirangan’ review: Indian space odyssey through the eyes of a pioneer

A new book reintroduces K. Kasturirangan’s lectures and papers to tell the story of the country’s ambitious satellite and rocket programmes

‘A Map of Longings: The Life and Works of Agha Shahid Ali’ review: Poet of witness and an ability to contain multitudes

Agha Shahid Ali hailed from various worlds, Indian-American, Kashmiri-non Kashmiri, English-Urdu, but did not fully belong to any one

Poverty alleviation and growth

These essays on topics ranging from poverty reduction policies to caste in India to the employment guarantee scheme provide a transformative agenda on development economics

‘The Elusive Tipping Point: China-India Ties for a New Order’ review: An equilibrium with China

A book on India-China ties focuses on the role of a third country in the relationship, Pakistan

In a foreign land: Vineetha Mokkil reviews Sabin Iqbal’s ‘Shamal Days’

A deftly sketched novel whose prose see-saws between poetic and purple

Ganga and Yajnaseni, again: Review of anthology ‘Collegiality and Other Ballads’

The anthology tends to reduce female experience to tragic sagas of sacrifice

Feral fancies: Review of Malayalam author Gracy’s ‘Baby Doll’

Gracy’s gloriously defiant women bring home the toxic taste of misogyny

‘On Citizenship’ review: Rights and guarantees

Four intellectuals explain threadbare the law on citizenship, the role of Parliament and the Constitution, and why giving it a religious basis must be condemned

‘The Marginalized Self: Tales of Resistance of a Community’ review: On the periphery of change

A narrative on marginalised communities questions the top down prescription of development

‘Space Life Matter: The Coming of Age of Indian Science’ review: The struggles and triumphs of India’s scientific fraternity

A journalist traces the country’s endeavour to becoming a knowledge society after Independence, overcoming many challenges, including lack of funds

‘Landscapes of Loss: The Story of an Indian Drought’ review: Distress in Marathwada and its wider repercussions

An investigation into the lives of farmers in a drought-prone area of Maharashtra raises questions around sustainability and policies

‘From Rebel to Ruler: One Hundred Years of the Chinese Communist Party’ review: A chequered century

Harvard professor Tony Saich’s definitive history of the Communist Party of China chronicles the rise, fall and rise again of the CPC, discounting the official linear version

Faces in the water: Rakhshanda Jalil reviews ‘From Volga to Ganga’ by Rahul Sankrityayan, trs Victor Gordon Kiernan, Kanwal Dhaliwal

Rahul Sankrityayan’s rare erudition and imagination power this chronological series of vignettes recreating the past

‘Believe’ review: Pushing the boundary

Limited-overs specialist Suresh Raina offers a glimpse of his cricketing life and its highs and lows

‘The House of Scindias: A Saga of Power, Politics and Intrigue’ review: Power and responsibility

Chronicling the long reach of the Scindia dynasty on Indian politics

‘Notes on Grief’ review: Grief and sorrow as a celebration of love and relationships

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie writes a moving tribute to her late father as she tries to come to terms with his loss during COVID lockdown

‘India Versus China: Why They Are Not Friends’ review: Your country, my country

Kanti Bajpai has a clear-eyed view of the present, but not necessarily of future relations between India and China who share a 3,500 km boundary and impressive trade relations

‘Tiananmen Square: The Making of a Protest’ review: History as drama: an eyewitness recounts Tiananmen unrest

A former diplomat argues that the students’ protest was not a democratic revolution but reflected a power struggle which the Chinese Communist Party put down

‘Leopard Diaries – the Rosette in India’ review: The conservation of big cats

A wildlife biologist explains why the elusive leopard needs more natural reserves to survive

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