Books

Existential Aaargh

Aresh Shirali

The Marx Brothers were right. X’mas or not, there aint no ‘sanity clause’, not in book contracts.

Lethal Language

Fatima Alam

In Madhulika Liddle’s ‘historical’ crime novel set in Shahjahanabad, the most brutal murder is that of the Urdu language.

Sweet World

Sohini Chattopadhyay

If Hrishikesh Mukherjee had ever tired his hand at writing fiction, he would have read a lot like this Farahad Zama’s The Marriage Bureau for Rich People or its sequel, The Many Conditions of Love.

Smashed Hard

Boria Majumdar

Andre Agassi casts out the demons of his past by writing about his cursed tryst with the sport that made him an icon.

So, What Happened?

Madhavankutty Pillai

Lucid language, poignant moments and one hell of an ending. If only there was a plot to fill the 200-odd pages.

‘Curb Gay Rights, Curb Aids’

Sohini Chattopadhyay

That’s the baseline prescription of Elizabeth Pisani, the author of a book on fighting the killer virus.

Maggots in the Mind

Open

Khalid, the protagonist, after over a year of being thrown into an isolation cell at Guantanamo Bay.

Where No Healing Is Ever Enough

Elizabeth Kuruvilla

Nominated for a children’s book prize, Anna Perera’s story of a Guantanamo inmate wrenches the heart with its stark realism.

Colour Me Bad

Boria Majumdar

This Pakistani cricketer-turned-politician has always been the paparazzi’s delight. In this biography, Sandford follows a similar path instead of trying to unravel the enigma called Imran Khan.