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Alex Michaelides: “Novels are about expansion”
Updated on Jun 15, 2024 09:02 AM IST
The bestselling British-Cypriot author and screenwriter is best known for The Silent Patient, which sold a million copies worldwide. His new novel, The Fury, is set on a remote island in Greece much like the one where he grew up
HT Picks; New Reads
On the reading list this week is a guide to five immensely popular eateries and their many offerings, a locked room murder mystery, and the first authoritative book on the Nagarwala scandal
Updated on Jun 15, 2024 09:00 AM IST
HT Team
Review: Ma is Scared by Anjali Kajal
While earlier Dalit literature brought out spine-chilling details of oppression, Anjali Kajal’s stories in Ma is Scared critique caste hegemony and reflect on the oppression of Dalits by highlighting finer strands of discrimination in places of education
Updated on Jun 15, 2024 08:52 AM IST
Kinshuk Gupta
Review: Mumbai Murmurings; 213 Tiny Tales of Theatre by Ramu Ramanathan
A record of theatre personalities in Mumbai and Maharashtra through entries comprising brief life facts, illustrative anecdotes, and samples of work, Ramu Ramanathan’s Mumbai Murmurings surprises and delights at every turn
Updated on Jun 15, 2024 08:48 AM IST
Mahmood Farooqui
Essay: A queer rite of passage
On cruising, Grindr, the gay gaze, a sudden explosion of violence and its unhappy aftermath that exposes the insensitivity of our law enforcement and health providers. A personal piece on confronting and overcoming very real fears #PrideMonthSpecial
Updated on Jun 14, 2024 10:35 AM IST
Review: Ramblings of a Bandra Boy by Joy Bimal Roy
Divided into sections titled Travel, Family, People, Me, Jol-Khabar and Supernatural, this book, comprising a collection of the author’s Facebook posts, educates, entertains and informs
Published on Jun 13, 2024 05:57 PM IST
Shoma A Chatterji
Walking in the footsteps of Heidi and her creator, Johanna Spyri
An enduring classic of children’s literature, Heidi underscores the therapeutic power of nature, the beauty of the everyday, the value of simplicity, and the importance of hope. Revisiting the book and the landscape that’s such an intrinsic part of it on the author’s 197th birth anniversary
Published on Jun 12, 2024 07:59 PM IST
Teja Lele
Sourav Roy: “There are deep problems despite the ‘Gitanjali Shree Effect’”
On translating Hoshang Merchant’s The Man Who Would Be Queen into Bangla, grappling with finding precise sexual terms, the need for more queer writing in Indian languages, and the impossibility of making a living from translation #PrideMonthSpecial
Published on Jun 11, 2024 09:09 PM IST
Chittajit Mitra
Appupen - “I’m scared of AI just like everybody else”
On his new graphic novel Dream Machine on Artificial Intelligence and on teaming up with Perumal Murugan to recreate CS Chellappa’s classic jallikattu novella, Vaadivaasal
Published on Jun 10, 2024 09:21 PM IST
Book Box | The difficulty of raising children in virtual and real worlds
The Anxious Generation by Jonathon Haidt raises questions about the best ways to raise healthy and happy children in both the virtual and the real worlds.
Published on Jun 09, 2024 01:23 AM IST
Amor Towles – “Aspiration is a very strong aspect of American culture”
On avoiding drawing from his personal life while writing fiction, including the late novelist Paul Auster as a character in one of his short stories, and working with translators
Updated on Jun 08, 2024 02:46 PM IST
HT Picks; New Reads
On the reading list this week is a memoir of a fifty-year engagement with public action, a volume on the south Asian explorers who documented over one million square miles in central Asia and Tibet, and an account of VS Naipaul’s family and of cultural change in Trinidad by his sister
Published on Jun 07, 2024 09:50 PM IST
HT Team
Review: Fraternity; Constitutional Norm and Human Need by Rajmohan Gandhi
In a lucid volume on the rarely emphasised virtue of fraternity enshrined by the preamble of our constitution, Rajmohan Gandhi seems to suggest that, despite its recent exclusions, there is hope yet for our society to be more inclusive
Published on Jun 07, 2024 09:49 PM IST
Maaz Bin Bilal
Review: Before I Forget by MK Raina
An unvarnished social document that reveals the restorative power of art to rebuild connections and communities, the theatre director’s memoir presents his deep engagement with and commitment towards grassroots cultural movements
Updated on Jun 07, 2024 09:49 PM IST
Kartik Chauhan
Watching The Mousetrap in the West End
Catching a show of Agatha Christie’s classic whodunit definitely tops the list of great things to do in London
Published on Jun 07, 2024 08:49 PM IST
Mihir Chitre
The Discarnates, All of Us Strangers and the pain of homecoming
Two ghost stories, two worlds and two temporalities inhabit the same representational space in Nobuhiko Obayashi’s The Discarnates and Andrew Haigh’s All of Us Strangers, both of which take off on Taichi Yamada’s novel, Stranger
Published on Jun 06, 2024 08:21 PM IST
On the road with Manou
For about a decade, the photographer has no fixed address. Here, he writes about travelling across the Northeast, documenting aspects of their cultural heritage
Published on Jun 05, 2024 09:26 PM IST
Manou
Review: Indian Literature’s issue on Trans Writing
The Sahitya Akademi’s journal’s issue devoted to trans writing includes excerpts from longer works, poetry, short fiction, essays and book reviews written in English and in major regional languages including Manipuri, Tamil, Kannada, Hindi, Bengali, Malyalam and Marathi
Updated on Jun 05, 2024 05:46 AM IST
Mohammad Farhan
Review: The Book of Chai by Mira Manek
Including a range of fragrant recipes from the familiar Ukaro and Kadha to the outre Saffron Chai Muesli and Pumpkin Chai Latte, this is a celebration of the milky brew that’s an intrinsic part of the life of Indian communities worldwide
Updated on Jun 04, 2024 05:40 PM IST
Sudhirendar Sharma
Akshaya Bahibala, author, Bhang Journeys – “I believe in the power of stories”
Bookseller and co-founder of Bhubaneshwar’s The Walking BookFairs bookstore, Akshaya Bahibala’s debut book is a recounting of the years he spent intoxicated along with an assessment of the production and abuse of drugs in Orissa
Published on Jun 03, 2024 08:36 PM IST
Book Box | Meet the history buff turned spy writer Ben Macintyre
Ben Macintyre on the psychology of spies and how to turn historical facts into riveting spy novels
Published on Jun 02, 2024 01:39 AM IST
HT Picks; New Reads
This week’s pick of interesting reads includes a food chronicle that entices readers to make everything from Gujarati kadhi to gulab ki kheer, a book about the first men and women who represented India on the world stage, and an exploration of how BR Ambedkar’s London years formed his thoughts on labour, women’s rights and political representation
Published on May 31, 2024 10:47 PM IST
HT Team
Interview: Joshy Benedict, author, The Pig Flip
On creating his graphic novel about a gambling addict trying to change his behaviour, initially self publishing it in Malayalam, its subsequent journey, his visual influences and his spectacular depiction of landscapes
Published on May 31, 2024 10:47 PM IST
Syed Saad Ahmed
Review: Bullets and Bylines by Shyam Bhatia
This extraordinary account of an extraordinary life is a must-read for those who want to know what it looks like to be deeply passionate about journalism
Published on May 31, 2024 10:45 PM IST
Lamat R Hasan
Nathan Thrall – “Stories have the power to move even the most closed minds”
The winner of this year’s Pulitzer Prize for general non fiction for A Day in the Life of Abed Salama, his book on the West Bank under Israeli occupation, talks about exclusion and death in Palestine
Published on May 31, 2024 10:09 PM IST
Majid Maqbool
Review: Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar
A novel that chalks out the protagonist’s identity crisis to minutely observe Iranian-American angst and dissonance in ideas of nationhood
Updated on May 31, 2024 07:17 PM IST
Rahul Singh
Essay: Respect my boundaries, dear peepal
The peepal provides refuge for humans and animals in the scorching summer and is considered a sacred tree in India. A meditation on this magnificent shade tree that can be both useful and destructive
Published on May 31, 2024 05:33 PM IST
Review: What is Saved by Aamer Hussein
Fiction, memoir and biography sit side-by-side in this book that includes autofiction and pieces born of esoteric inspirations and historical sources that reveal the breadth of the author’s reading
Updated on May 30, 2024 06:37 PM IST
Areeb Ahmad
Kailash Satyarthi - “We need to globalise compassion”
On the prevalence of slavery, how domestic child labour continues to flourish in India, what rescued children have taught him, and the steps the country needs to take regarding child rights
Published on May 29, 2024 09:04 PM IST
Chittajit Mitra
A day of readings at the Kashmir Fiction Writers Guild
The association, that holds weekly sessions where writers present short stories and excerpts from novels and plays, will soon celebrate its 10th anniversary
Published on May 28, 2024 06:08 PM IST
Hilal Mir