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

Historian V.N. Datta’s wide-angle book on the massacre, treating it as a clash between nationalist aspirations and imperial policies, has been republished with a new interview and preface

‘India’s Power Elite: Class, Caste and a Cultural Revolution’ review: The dismantling of the old order and the birth of a new elite

Sanjaya Baru captures the churn brought about by the 2014 general election, the rise of the BJP and its impact on the social and cultural landscape

The man without a badge: Geeta Doctor reviews ‘The Unmarriageable Man’ by Ashok Ferrey

We are all immigrants at some point or the other, says this story of post-colonial turmoil

Detective Ghalib investigates: Ranjana Sengupta reviews ‘Murder at the Mushaira’ by Raza Mir

The book is filled with period detail, with the sights, sounds and smells of Shahjahanabad spilling out of every page of this historical thriller

Enemy of modernity: Gandhi’s ‘Hind Swaraj’

The early work Hind Swaraj contains some of Gandhi’s more eccentric thoughts

‘Unfinished’ by Priyanka Chopra Jonas on Audible: intrigue, tears and giggles on tap

While the written book ‘Unfinished’ entails much of Chopra Jonas’ career and personal successes, the audiobook experience adds an intimate layer of personability that does draw empathy.

‘Under a White Sky’ review: Marching towards extinction

Critical of technological interventions to bring nature back, an environment writer says human actions have brought ecosystems to the brink of an apocalypse

‘The Great Unravelling: India after 2014’ review: Rahul Gandhi and the loneliness of the long-distance runner

A former Congress spokesperson elaborates on the lack of an internal forum in the party to discuss leadership and other issues

‘The Inheritance of Words: Writings from Arunachal Pradesh’ review: Fading voices

Women of Arunachal Pradesh provide a glimpse of their culture and traditions, past and present

Despite pins and needles: K. Srilata reviews ‘A Sky Full of Bucket Lists’ by Shobhana Kumar

The invisible is nudged into half-light in this collection of haibun

So far so fluent: Latha Anantharaman reviews ‘Sylvia: Distant Avuncular Ends’ by Maithreyi Karnoor

Begins with concrete clarity but ends in a blur

‘Undercover: My Journey into the Darkness of Hindutva’ review: From Gujarat to Delhi, the impact of militant Hindu nationalism

A journalist gathers all his undercover investigations in the Gujarat riots case, which are now a part of court evidence, into this book

‘Indians: A Brief History of a Civilization’ review: Modern day journeys into the past

Namit Arora explores how Indians lived, ate, loved, built, fought and made sense of the material, rational and spiritual world down the ages

‘The Cracks That Let the Light In: What I Learned from my Disabled Son’ review: A mother’s journey to understand her son’s complex world

Jessica Moxham’s memoir is about parenting a special needs child in a society which doesn’t quite understand the language of disability

Rama of Adam’s family: Arshia Sattar reviews ‘Hikayat Seri Rama: The Malay Ramayana’, Translated by Harry Aveling

The Indian epic’s Malay version comfortably holds other religious and cultural traditions within itself

A reformer’s childhood: Review of ‘Shyamchi Aai’ by Sane Guruji, trs Shanta Gokhale

How does Sane Guruji’s Marathi classic, now available in a new translation by Shanta Gokhale, fare in today’s context?

In a city by the sea

A writer profiles Karachi’s everyday citizens, highlighting their fears and hopes

‘A Road Well Travelled’ review: Bofors to match-fixing, a police officer recounts life in service

R.K. Raghavan, who was in the thick of action in several cases of national interest, gives an insight into the workings of the force

‘By Many a Happy Accident: Recollections of a Life’ review: Reflections of a nationalist

In his autobiography, Hamid Ansari, Vice-President for two terms, brings to the fore the predicament of Indian Muslims, who still live in the shadow of Partition

‘Ghalib: A Wilderness at my Doorstep’: Fresh insight into Ghalib’s world

A biography of the Urdu poet and writer also signposts the literary culture of the age

‘Midnight’s Borders: A People’s History of Modern India’ review: A ‘museum’ of forgotten stories from the borderlands

Travelling 9000 miles over seven years, Suchitra Vijayan tries to understand India through her boundaries with Bangladesh, China, Myanmar and Pakistan

‘Keywords for India: A Conceptual Lexicon for the 21st Century’ review: Constellation of words

Drawn from multiple languages, both native and imported, the 259 words in this volume provide a fascinating linguistic entry into contemporary India

Musings on the mirage city: Review of ‘The Kolkata Cadence’

The poetry manages for the most part to escape the trap of nostalgia

Burning hearts: ‘The True History of the Conquest of New Spain’ by Bernal Díaz del Castillo

We see the Spanish conquest of Mexico happening before our eyes in Bernal Díaz’s graphic account

Then a hero comes along: Review of Devashish Makhija’s ‘Oonga’

This adaptation of Devashish Makhija’s 2013 film has the feel of a screenplay

Faithful to a fault: Aditya Sudarshan reviews Keerthik Sasidharan’s ‘The Dharma Forest’

This retelling of the Mahabharata is realistic unto distastefulness, chiefly because of the author’s intoxication with the source material

Navin’s Peichi explores various facets of Malaysian Tamil life

M. Navin’s banned novel Peichi holds a mirror to Tamil life in Malaysia

‘Joe Biden: American Dreamer’ review: The story of two Joe Bidens

A biography captures the essence of the personal and public sides of the new American President’s life, one riddled with suffering and the other marked by success

‘A Ringside Seat to History’ review: Mission of a career diplomat

Assignments need imagination and hard work, not champagne and caviar, as Ambassador Nazareth shows

‘Despite the State’ review: A developmental cul-de-sac in a functioning democracy

Reporting from six States with varying histories, economics and civil structures, a journalist finds each struggling to deliver health, education and justice to its people

The call of one’s roots: Review of Prema Srinivasan’s ‘And Finally, A Blessing!’

An ancient family curse, dark forebodings, and a resolute girl on a mission

Etched in memory: Review of Anoushka Khan’s ‘Still Life’

More a work of art than a piece of literature

‘The Chipko Movement: A People’s History’ review: When nature speaks out

Remembering the people who contributed to the extraordinary Chipko movement and why the battle to protect forests and mountains is far from over

‘Being Sheela: The Life Journey of an Immigration Lawyer’ review: At the forefront of the good fight for immigrants

A biography of the successful lawyer Sheela Murthy also provides a peek into the lives of those caught in America’s complex policies

The ‘Other’ Shangri-La review: Magic mountains

A journey through ‘new’ Tibet, a place of incredible beauty, also considers myths, legends and ties with China

The horror of it all: Review of Nikhil Pradhan’s ‘Yesterday’s Ghosts’

In his eagerness to make the story cool, Nikhil Pradhan ends up making it formulaic

The overwhelming question: Review of Ameya Prabhu’s ‘The Rock Babas and Other Stories’

An impressive feat of research and background reading

Clearing the fog: Review of Daribha Lyndem’s ‘Name Place Animal Thing’

A rare peek into life in Shillong from the p.o.v. of a Khasi girl

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