Books

From behind the Bars

Rahul Pandita

Varavara Rao’s Captive Imagination is one of the most vivid prison diaries of our time.

Stock Home of Murder

Sohini Chattopadhyay

The Swedes actually have crime writing workshops teaching the rules of a good murder. And they’re coming to India to pass on some tips.

The Latest Word Is…

Jaideep Mazumdar

Warren Hastings’ home in Kolkata may soon host the world’s first interactive museum of letters.

Killing the Water

Arindam Mukherjee

Here comes another Bangladeshi expatriate author in English who easily qualifies as one of the finest from his country.

Dissecting a Dynasty

Hartosh Singh Bal

South Asian politics is the politics of the family. And never before have we got such a view from the inside. It’s what gives this book its wider relevance.

Tome Team

Elizabeth Kuruvilla

Diana Preston on writing Mughal thrillers with her husband, the fun of pseudonyms and ethics of fictionalising history.

Unhappy Endings

Vineetha Mokkil

Voyaging into the bizarre with elan, TC Boyle offers no redemption but stunning wordplay and surprising insights.

Too Much to Handle

Open

The humour and quiet elegance do work. But two-time Booker winner Peter Carey packs in so many characters and subplots that you’re exhausted.

The Mimic Man

Hartosh Singh Bal

Aatish Taseer’s dilemma is that he writes his best when he is trying to be Naipaul, but he clearly needs to move beyond Naipaul and find his own voice.

Typically Middle Class

TR Vivek

Santosh Desai is a top-of-the-class ad guy, no doubt about that. And he lives up to the expectations with a series of essays that entertain, surprise and evoke nostalgia