The Little Coffee Shop of Kabul; Deborah Rodriguez, Hachette India, Rs.399.
In a little coffee shop in one of the most dangerous places on earth, five very different women come together. Sunny, the proud proprietor, Yasmina, a young pregnant woman, Isabel, a determined journalist, Candace, a wealthy American, and Halajan, the 60-year-old den mother form a unique bond that will forever change their lives.
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This is an unusual novel that evokes a lost era — a time when people wrote letters and cherished the ones they received. Set in Delhi, the plot explores the experience of love, its many faces, through the life of young Nayan. At the heart of the story lies her own unsettling relationship with Salil, a drifter who flits between poetry and backpacking.
A Teaspoon of Earth and Sea; Dina Nayeri, Penguin India, Rs.399.
All her life, Saba Hafezi has been taught that “fate is in the blood”, which convinces her that twins will live the same life, even if separated by land and sea. Growing up in a small fishing village in 1980s Iran, 11-year-old Saba and her twin sister Mahtab are fascinated by America. So when Saba suddenly finds herself abandoned, alone with her father in Iran, she is certain that her mother and twin have moved to America without her.
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Abdication; Juliet Nicolson, Bloomsbury, Rs.499.
After the death of George V, England has a new king, Edward VIII. But for all the confident pomp and ceremony of accession, it is a turbulent time. When 19-year-old May Thomas arrives in Liverpool, her first job as secretary and chauffeuse to Sir Philip Blunt introduces her to the upper echelons of British society — and to Julian, a young man of conscience whom, despite all barriers of class, she cannot help but fall for.
Final Cut, Uday Gupt, Frog Books, Rs.195.
The book contains six fast-paced gripping short stories — ‘Hodson’s Gold’, ‘Friends’, ‘It Happens Only in India’, ‘The Last Supper’, ‘Buddha Purnima’, ‘Final Cut’ — and a short novella — ‘Will Reena?’ — each with an unexpected twist in the last paragraph.