Books

And Then There was One

Aastha Atray Banan

At last, there is someone to satisfy an Agatha Christie aficionado’s longing for old school whodunits—Japanese author Keigo Higashino

That Bird in the Bush

Rauf Ali

This compilation of the late M Krishnan’s Statesman column is a worthy companion for your evening tea on the balcony as you watch that little winged fellow hop around

Kuldip Nayar’s memoirs, really a personalised history of contemporary India, are a good read. But his apologies and retractions since its publication do justice neither to his book nor his reputation as a journalist

Poet of the Paddyfields

Jyotirmoy Talukdar

Hiren Bhattacharyya, the Assamese poet who recently passed away, was a rare writer whose works are taught from high school to university

‘There will never be another don like Dawood’

Haima Deshpande

In a short conversation, writer S Hussain Zaidi offers an insight into the relevance of the underworld now that terrorists have given a new meaning to ‘crime’.

Gangs of Mumbai

Haima Deshpande

Dawood’s Rampuri knife as his first weapon, a love affair that led to a bitter fight with a Christian gang, and other such nuggets on the Mumbai mafia. In all, a thrilling read

The Anonymity Effect

Aimee Ginsburg

If you look past its author’s name and ‘Nobel prize winner’ appellation, Home is a taut read with a jazzy rhythm—till you reach a revelation that makes you squirm

Synaptic Sizzle

Aresh Shirali

A book that puts the brain under a scanner to make scientific sense of creativity

A Rotten but Not Entirely Unlikeable Man

Arshia Sattar

A corrupt underling is as crooked as the system he works in, but Bagchi’s quiet, masterly prose leaves you with sympathy for his morally bankrupt protagonist