Books
The Writer’s Riyaaz
Sohini Chattopadhyay
Amit Chaudhuri on the death of the author-editor relationship, the boredom of being a novelist, and writing on his feet, literally
The Reader’s Writer
Tabish Khair on why he doesn’t write for critics, his dislike of the term ‘postcolonial’, and how journalism helped him overcome his dread of deadlines
A Spanking New Bestseller
This could have been a Mills & Boon novel, but for its sado-masochistic twist. So what is it about this cliché-ridden book that is driving women in hordes to read it?
The Subaltern Sings
Gogu Shyamala, a Dalit feminist and Telangana activist, writes captivating short stories about life in rural Andhra Pradesh
One Hundred Years of Good Girlitude
The lessons of Bahishti Zevar, advising Muslim women to defer to their husbands and never consider them their equals, are still popular with talk show hosts in Pakistan
When Something Works
As with her first collection of poems, Tishani Doshi’s best poems here are those in which a female experience, located boldly in the body, works as a comment on something larger
The Free Man
Ah, the joys of reading a diasporic story that’s not angsting itself silly over finding one’s roots
All Noisy on the Western Front
How did the West suddenly get so much richer than the East about 350 years ago? Another book on business history, another explanation
The Last Great Devadasi
Legendary Bharatanatyam dancer Balasaraswati’s story, as told by her son-in-law, is pleasant enough but it glosses over the debate at the heart of the art form—the abuse inherent in the devadasi system
The Importance of Living Intensely
Teju Cole on the impossibility of being an invisible author, and the need to turn down dinner invitations
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