Books

All Noisy on the Western Front

Aresh Shirali

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

Gitanjali Kolanad

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

Shruti Ravindran

Teju Cole on the impossibility of being an invisible author, and the need to turn down dinner invitations

Dazzled by Their Soul

Hartosh Singh Bal

Our politician poets such as Kapil Sibal are so in love with themselves that they believe every eructation of theirs deserves a readership. Our literary culture is more than happy to oblige

Power of Celibacy

Michael Edison Hayden

Joseph S Alter’s book studies masculinity in modern India and spans territories as distinct—if linked—as wrestling, exercise and saving semen

Dirty Rotten Murderers

Kavitha Rao

Modern crime fiction seems to have caught up with the perversity of real-life violence. Gone are the days when the little grey cells were all that was important to a racy read

The Invisibles

Katherine Boo

The Indian criminal justice sytem is like the market for garbage, where innocence and guilt can be bought and sold like polyurethane bags. This is how Abdul, the main character of Katherine Boo’s book on living and dying in a Mumbai slum, makes sense of his tragic life. An extract