Summer Reading: Shelf Indulgence

FICTION

TRANSCRIPTION | By Ben Lerner | Granta

Lerner, poet and novelist, is a precisionist whose linguistic elegance is matched by his play with ideas. Here, a writer comes to interview a 90-year old philosopher but he can’t record the conversation. He dropped his smartphone earlier in the hotel sink. The disadvantage becomes an existential exploration.

THE CALAMITY CLUB | By Kathryn Stockett | Fig Tree

The Help, Kathryn Stockett’s 2009 debut novel sold over 15 mil­lion copies and inspired a Hollywood adaptation. She is now back with The Calamity Club, which follows two narrators: 11-year-old Meg Lefleur who seems to be living in her own version of Oliver Twist’s life at a 1930s orphanage in Mississippi; and Birdie Calhoun, a young woman with book­keeping skills and a debt to pay.

RED SWORD | By Bora Chung Translated by Anton Hur | Pan

For readers seeking a dose of weird, South Korean writer Bora Chung rarely disappoints—as seen in the stories of her International Booker Prize-longlisted Cursed Bunny. Anton Hur, who trans­lated the anthology, has also worked on Red Sword, Chung’s third novel newly translated in English. The setting is another world, bathed in white, but the novel draws from the 17th-century history of Korean soldiers fighting against Russia.

THE THINGS WE NEVER SAY | By Elizabeth Strout | Penguin

One of the most acclaimed contemporary American novelists, Elizabeth Strout is noted for her ability to expand the contours of ordinary lives—pleasing readers and critics alike. Her new novel, The Things We Never Say, exempli­fies this ability, following Artie Dam, a 57-year-old history teacher in coastal Massachusetts, his happy demeanour belying past losses and acute loneliness.

THE MIDNIGHT TRAIN | By Matt Haig | Canongate Books

Over several novels, Matt Haig has mastered the art of tugging at readers’ heartstrings. The Mid­night Train, his latest book, takes aboard a train like no other—one that flashes past key moments of one’s life and offers the protagonist, Wilbur, the chance for a do-over. If the time-travelling story reminds readers of The Midnight Library, Haig’s popular 2020 dimension-hopping novel, that is entirely by design.

YESTERYEAR | By Caro Claire Burke | Knopf

We have watched tradwives unfold with horror and fascination—women making their own ketchup and gum, homeschooling children, worshipping their husbands and telling women to quit jobs (while monetising their content). Caro Claire Burke imagines, in Yesteryear, what happens when a tradwife is transported to the 19th century. So great is the hype that Burke has already scored a movie deal with Anne Hathaway in the lead.

THE PALM HOUSE | By Gwendoline Riley | Picador

With a changing media industry in the back­ground, Gwedoline Riley’s new novel revolves around two friends, Laura Miller and Edmund Putnam. The duo meets over crisps and drinks, recalling the past and cop­ing with the present—their conversations and memories testifying to Riley’s talent for observation and character-study over plot twists and turns.

NO SUCH THING AS MONDAY | By Sian Hughes | The Indigo Press

Monday has become fodder for memes and motivational messages, but Sian Hughes makes it a poignant metaphor for loss and grief in her new novel. No Such Thing as Monday follows Stephanie, haunted by memories of a violent father and a sister who goes missing in the wake of his abuse. But Hughes, whose debut novel Pearl earned her a place in the Booker Prize longlist in 2023, uplifts the bleak premise with her writing.

THE GREAT KANCHANA CIRCUS | Vishwas Patil Translated by Nadeem Khan | Ekada

It’s a throwback to a different era. Acclaimed Marathi writer Vishwas Patil’s newly translated book will make you want to step into a circus tent—with its animals and acrobats, clowns and most of all, an audacious heroine from which both the circus and the novel get their names. Amid World War II, this is a story of a daring escapade and a yearning for freedom.

THE PERSIAN | By David McCloskey | WW Norton & Co

McCloskey is perhaps the best writer on espionage today. An expatriate Iranian dentist recruited by Mossad ends up in Tehran’s custody. His torturers ask Kamran Esfahani to write down everything. He succeeds in keeping one big secret.

Non-Fiction

TALKING CLASSICS: THE SHOCK OF THE OLD | By Mary Beard | Profile Books

Why Plato is still the world’s best-selling philoso­pher. A much revered classicist tells us what we can learn from the ancient Greeks and Romans. It is all about what the Greeks call thauma—or wonderment. Read Beard to remain amazed.

LOVE MACHINES | By James Muldoon | Faber & Faber

Few contemporary anxieties are more urgent than AI’s over­reaching influence. Sociologist James Muldoon zones into one such concern: how human lives are becoming emotionally entangled with machines. Romantic partners, friend, therapist—a chatbot can be anything you want it to be. Muldoon understands its comfort as much as its terror.

THE DANGER TO BE SANE: CREATIVITY AND THE ECCENTRIC MIND | By Rosa Montero Translated by Lindsey Ford | Europa Compass

“One of the good things I’ve discovered over the years is that being strange is nothing strange at all”, writes Spanish journalist and author Rosa Montero in her book, probing the dynamics between creative pursuits and mental health. Montero dives into the inner lives of literary greats—Woolf, Kafka, Proust and Dickinson among others—but also cites her own struggle, proving she has skin in the game.

THE GOOD REPORTER | By Disha Mullick and the Khabar Lahariya team | Simon & Schuster

Since 2002, the women-run news platform Khabar Lahariya has reached millions of read­ers and found acclaim for spotlighting little-known stories from rural India. This book, written by the Khabar Lahariya team with Disha Mullick, traces their remarkable story from beginning as a local newspaper sold in Bundelkhand to a trailblazing digital news platform.

FLYING YOGINIS | By Irwin Allan Sealy | Seagull Books

This slender title packs a world of knowledge and wit in its pages. Bending genres with a flair that ancient yoginis would approve of, Irwin Allan Sealy travels back and forth in time and space, drawing from history and philosophy, popular culture and his travels to trace these figures in ancient temples and modern museums. On the way, he also glimpses yoginis in unexpected figures, from Rosa Parks to Margaret Masterman.

DEKONSTRUCTING THE KARDASHIANS | By MJ Corey | Renegade Books

Among the most famous people in the world today, the Kardashians—reality TV stars, entre­preneurs, supermodels and influencers—invite both curiosity and derision. Writer MJ Corey takes the path of curiosity in her new book, examining not just what makes the Kardashians such a phenomenon but also what it says of media today. Corey has the right credentials for the book, having dedicated years on social media to tracking the family.

WILD CAPITAL: DISCOVERING NATURE IN DELHI | By Neha Sinha | HarperCollins

The national capital becomes a treasure trove of natural wonders in Neha Sinha’s telling. In Wild Capital, the conservation biologist chases birdsong and elusive animals, rare trees and wild habitats—all hiding and enduring beneath Delhi NCR’s concrete facade. Blending fieldwork and research with childhood memories and love for nature, Sinha conjures an unusual image of the city.

A ROOM IN BOMBAY | By Manil Suri | WW Norton & Co

Fact and fiction aside, the hallmark of a good memoir is that it reads like a novel. Indian-American mathematician and author Manil Suri does exactly this in his new book, recollecting life in a one-room home with his parents in Bombay. Suri paints bittersweet, beautiful portraits of his parents as people navi­gating their lost hopes and dreams, and framing it against his own journey.

FAMESICK | By Lena Dunham | Fourth Estate

Through its six-season run, the HBO drama series Girls sparked extreme reactions—both unabashed love and utter disdain for its female protagonists. Lena Dunham, the show’s creator, evokes similar reactions; she is both dazzling and infuriating. Famesick is her second memoir, juxtaposing her pursuit of success with illness and personal crises. It is as intimate and disruptive as one expects from a Dunham story.

JUST BEING | By Romila Thapar | Seagull Books

One of India’s most well-known historians, Romila Thapar has written many books but this is arguably her most per­sonal. Thapar brings together anecdotes of her childhood, her education and travels, her long journey of scholarship, relationships with fel­low academics and more—reflecting on a life spent in dedication to gathering and dissemi­nating knowledge.