Africanistan — Development or Jihad
By Serge Michailof
At the first glance, this book, with its black and white cover illustration of a masked man holding an assault rifle in his hands, and a title like “Africanistan” might make you wary and wonder if it was going to be another Islamophobic trope masked as a book on the future of Africa.
But once you dive in, this is a page turner on a par with the latest bestselling crime fiction: for the breadth and depth of detail on the problems besetting these countries, the roots of their genesis and the refreshingly ideology-free prescriptions that, if implemented with genuine commitment and financial backing, may yet help ward off an impending threat to the free world as we all know it.
Eating Wasps
By Anita Nair
Intriguingly titled Eating Wasps , the novel recounts the stories of not one but 10 women who have had to deal with obstacles that threaten their existence.
Nair’s grasp of the art of telling stories in parts, a format we are familiar with from her previous books, takes the readers through the lives of her characters without any disconnect. Whereas in Ladies Coupe the characters were searching for an identity for themselves and in Mistress , Radha and Maya were given the freedom to fight against male domination and to reclaim their sexuality, the women in Eating Wasps find themselves battling both internal and external demons in spite of the freedoms available to them.
Darjeeling Reconsidered — Histories, Politics, Environments
Edited by Townsend Middleton & Sara Shneiderman
In this book comprising of 11 well-researched essays, the editors wish to avoid the stereotype of Darjeeling as a ‘hill station’ and to present a more ‘grounded understanding’ of the town as a geo-political space by connecting history with the present through ethnographic and political analysis.
The early history of Darjeeling has been presented well, though the quest of the people of the hills for autonomy in the last century has not been properly analysed. A particular absence is the silence on the language movements. These quibbles apart, the book is a welcome addition to the small corpus of academic books on Darjeeling.
Between the Great Divide: A Journey into Pakistan-administered Kashmir
By Aman Zakaria
Aman Zakaria’s Between the Great Divide is not about ‘Azad’ Kashmir as a political project, but the human and existential realities of life in Pakistan Administered Jammu and Kashmir (PAJK).
A complex tale, it is a mosaic of numerous displacements and disavowals, uncertain borders and nation-splitting recounted with sensitivity, even if it lacks high quality scholarship at times. Despite being one of the most high-profile territorial disputes in the world, not much is available on the political, cultural and social aspects of PAJK, making it somewhat of an ‘insignificant other’ in the Kashmir issue. After reading Zakaria, it is impossible not to think that the two parts are now bound by their suffering.
Treasured Epistles
By K. Natwar Singh
In his pre-politician years, as a diplomat and writer, K. Natwar Singh received letters from several well-known people who “extended and enriched” his “Weltanschauung”, as he remarks in the preface to Treasured Epistles . Those whose letters feature in this volume include Indira Gandhi and C. Rajagopalachari, the last Viceroy of India, Lord Mountbatten, distinguished writers E.M. Forster, R.K. Narayan, Nirad C. Chaudhuri, Mulk Raj Anand and Han Suyin — and even, Jawaharlal Nehru’s two sisters Vijaylakshmi Pandit and Krishna Hutheesing.
Some of the most interesting letters are those from Singh’s literary mentor, Forster, and the other writers, providing the reader with fascinating glimpses of what they thought of each other’s work — not always complimentary!
The Piranhas
By Roberto Saviano
The Piranhas makes for disturbing reading: it graphically depicts the descent into urban hell when a generation abandons all hopes and falls prey to a life of easy crime. And although its narrative storyline could well be framed as a prequel to the original Godfather in the era of Facebook — where even a misdirected or an unwelcome ‘like’ can invite defecatory retribution of the sort that Nicolas delivers in the opening scene — it mirrors, in a broader sense, the downward spiral in the cycle of mob violence. There may have once been a method in the madness; today there is just mindlessness in the mayhem.
Washington Black
By Esi Edugyan
The novel tracks the life of George Washington Black, a young black boy born into slavery at a plantation in Barbados, which is brutally administered by one Erasmus Wilde. Washington (or ‘Wash’) grows up amidst daily maimings and killings, with a lone maternal protector, Big Kit, who promises him a better life after death.
The novel’s plot quickly (and literally) takes off, amidst vivid descriptions of cane fields, atrocities, the master’s abode, the mountain peak which is the launch-pad for Titch’s ‘Cloud-Cutter’, the train-station in the town.
The Mystery of Three Quarters: The New Hercule Poirot Mystery
By Sophie Hannah
Murder, mystery and suspects are all uniformly tedious, and the psychology unravelled is quite a travesty. One labours through pages of tortuous dialogue to arrive at some fairly simplistic deduction. Hannah huffs and she puffs and at the end there’s a pile of straw. The conventions are followed, yes, but Poirot’s chutzpah is as unmistakably missing as his patent leather shoes and luxuriant moustache, both of which get a single, sad mention each.
The original Poirot and Marple and Morse and Adam Dalgliesh are as sacred as an original Mona Lisa, and I wish publishers would respect that.
A Place For Us
By Fatima Farheen Mirza
Set across spaces and times, A Place For Us returns faithfully to its core interests with practised zest and intent. Broadly a story of Layla and Rafiq, an immigrant couple in the U.S. (California), and their children — Hadia, Huda, and Amar — A Place For Us is at its core the story of the entire family coming to terms with their non-Western sensibilities in their adoptive home.
Mirza writes with focus. She seems to have recognised the trappings of drama and its obvious pitfalls, and sidesteps them with ease.
Here are a few more suggestions from our book review team:
The Blue Lotus :Myths and Folktales of India by Meena Arora Nayak
This collection brings alive stories about gods, apsaras, animals, asuras and people, while exploring a wide range of timeless topics and themes. Here we find shape-shifting asuras in enchanted forests, wandering rishis with formidable magical powers, bewitching apsaras gliding through heavenly palaces and heroes so tall they touch the skies. No matter how fantastic these tales are, they give us an insight into the lives we live.
Conman by Surendra Mohan Pathak
Surender Mohan Pathak brings his famous crime reporter Sunil Chakravarty back into our lives with Conman. Kiara receives a WhatsApp invite from Aditya Khanna, who claims to be an investment banker in New York. He sweeps her off her feet and promises to return to India and marry her. Kiara is duped in the process. The story turns into a mystery when cops come knocking on Kiara’s door for the murder of the man who conned her.
Everyone Has a Story 2 by Savi Sharma
Savi Sharma’s self-published novel, Everyone Has A Story, was India’s fastest selling debut novel. Everyone Has A Story – 2 is a sequel to that bestseller. Here Meera, Vivaan, Kabir and Nisha are challenged by fate. They find that life is a constant test, and the trials never end. It turns the happily-ever-after on its head as the character of fate subjects Meera, Vivaan, Kabir and Nisha to various trials to test their endurance.
The Fox by Frederick Forsyth
This is a classic race-against-time thriller with a modern twist. The deadly weapon here is a 17-year-old boy with a brilliant mind, who can break into the most sophisticated security services across the globe, manipulate that weaponry and turn it against the superpowers themselves. Naturally, he is Most Wanted and The Fox races across continents to find and capture, or protect and save, an asset with the means to change the balance of world power. Whatever happens he must not fall into the wrong hands.
The Lost History of Liberalism by Helena Rosenblatt
This book challenges basic assumptions about a political creed that has become a rallying cry in today's divided public arena. Taking readers from ancient Rome to today, Rosenblatt traces the evolution of the words ‘liberal’ and ‘liberalism’, revealing the heated debates that have taken place over their meaning. We still can’t seem to agree on liberalism’s meaning.
Farmers, Subalterns, and Activists by Trent Brown
In theory, chemical-free sustainable agriculture has ecological benefits, social and economic benefits for rural communities. In practice, however, organisations promoting sustainable agriculture often maintain connections with powerful institutions with vested interests in maintaining the status quo. This book explores this tension within the sustainable farming movement through reference to three case studies of organisations operating in rural India.
The Rise and Fall of the Emerald Tigers by Raghu Chundawat
A conservation biologist shares his findings from the research he did on Panna tigers, between 1996 and 2006. By 2002-03, the fortunes of Panna’s tigers, and Chundawat’s research, nosedived when the park management changed. This is an account of the politics and administrative apathy plaguing Indian wildlife conservation. He discusses the larger threats to Indian wildlife, and possible solutions.
At Home with Muhammad Ali by Hana Ali
This is an intimate portrait of a legend, written by Muhammad Ali’s daughter Hana. As Ali approached the end of his boxing career, he strove to embrace a new purpose and role in life beyond the ring. Despite the complexities of his personal life, he went to great lengths to keep all of his nine children united and to help others.
Neta Abhineta: Bollywood Star Power in Indian Politics by Rasheed Kidwai
What draws the larger-than-life personalities who entertain us on screen to the world of governance? Kidwai traces this phenomenon and explores why some of Hindi cinema's top stars from Dilip Kumar, Sunil Dutt, Amitabh Bachchan to Hema Malini and Jaya Prada entered politics. Was it a sense of social commitment or a quest for relevance when their star power dimmed?
