FICTION
‘The Mister’
As teenagers, most of us stumbled upon romance and desire in the pages of zippy Mills & Boons novels. They came usefully graded by classmates as hot, hotter and tame-as-sawdust, and were more daring than our mothers’ libraries of sappy Barbara Cartlands and Denise Robins.
‘No Beast So Fierce: The Champawat Tiger and Her Hunter, the First Tiger Conservationist’
This book is as much a story of the Champawat man-eater as it is of its eliminator, Jim Corbett. Both of them have been written about before, the former by Corbett himself in Man-Eaters of Kumaon , and the latter by Martin Booth, in Carpet Sahib: A Life of Jim Corbett.
Land Lust
Joginder Paul, translated by Sukrita Paul Kumar & Vandana R. Singh
This is a translation of Joginder Paul’s Urdu stories in Dharti ka Kaal . The stories offer glimpses of multiracial relations in colonial Kenya: there are moments of compassion in harsh xenophobic environs. One of the themes is the strong connection between the land and its people, who tell their stories in their own voices.
A Nice Cup of Tea
Celia Imrie
In this novel releasing on May 16, five retired expats pool their resources to set up La Mosaïque, a little restaurant in Bellevue-sur-Mer. The going is not easy with fussy customers and a failing delivery van. On top of this, two of the owners are tortured by a missing teenage granddaughter and a grisly pair of luvvies.
Take Me to the Heart of Beauty
Shreya Banerjee
Shreya Banerjee transforms humdrum things — a dry leaf falling, a lazy Sunday morning — into images and stories. The poems draw us into dark places: the mind of a person sinking into depression, a grieving heart. And there are odes to life’s little miracles — sunshine, the sound of laughter, art.
No Trespassing
Brinda S. Narayan
The ultra-luxury gated community Fantasia seems idyllic when Vedika and her family move in. Then her son dies in a freak accident and Vedika discovers he was murdered. Investigating his death, Vedika finds sinister links between Fantasia and a blighted slum in poverty-ridden Bihar.
NON FICTION
‘The Unnamable Present’
Roberto Calasso, a humanist, tries to make sense of the chaos prevailing in the world.
As the reader tries to make his way out of this hallucinatory fog emanating from Baudelaire’s pen, Calasso reminds us that when the tower collapse transpired in reality, much like Baudelaire anticipated, the nations of the world corresponded and commiserated with each other. The only difference now was “the towers were two — and were twins.” This foreboding in the minds of a poet defies reason.
‘Doing Justice — A Prosecutor’s Thoughts on Crime, Punishment and the Rule of Law’
“Justice can sometimes spring as much from the heart as from the head. That is because the law can unduly elevate the abstract over the actual. Everyone in the system is a person, and while justice is something of an abstraction, it is sought and felt by real human beings,” Preet Bharara, former head of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, considered the U.S.’s top — and sometimes most feared — public prosecutor’s office, writes in his new book.
‘India’s Eastward Engagement — From Antiquity to Act East Policy’
The book, India’s Eastward Engagement , is a timely addition to the literature available on the subject as relations between the two majors of Asia, India and China, while oscillating, is also recognised to be of greater importance than ever before. The task undertaken by the writers, dealing with the subject from the past to the present, is rather too large to be covered in 263 pages (64 pages of annexure excluded), but they have managed to focus on issues that are most relevant.
Independence & Accountability of the Indian Higher Judiciary
Arghya Sengupta
This volume analyses the functioning of the Supreme Court and High Courts assessing four key areas — appointment, transfer, impeachment, and post-retirement employment of judges. Taking into account recent controversial decisions, it suggests reforms to make the judiciary effective.
Siyasi Muslims: A Story of Political Islams in India
Penguin Random House
Are Muslims nationalists or do they continue to remain an ‘other’ in India? How do we make sense of the Muslims of India? What are the issues they are grappling with? Ahmed writes about their everyday lives, going beyond narratives of victimhood and separation.
A Desolation called Peace: Voices from Kashmir
Edited by Ather Zia, Javaid Iqbal Bhat
A collection of ethnographic essays explores the desire for ‘azadi’ as a historical and indigenous demand. While the accounts traverse from before 1947 to 1989 when militancy began, the essays illustrate how politics has impinged on Kashmiri lives and aspirations.
Delhi Darshan: The History and Monuments of India’s Capital
Giles Tillotson
An account of Delhi’s built heritage, from the traces of the earliest settlements at Indraprastha, through the Delhi Sultans and the great Mughals, to the ordered symmetries of Lutyen’s Delhi, and the twists, turns and transformations in the national capital’s history.
