Archive by Author

Title: Lazarus is Dead
Author: Richard Beard
Publisher: Europa Editions
ISBN: 9781609450809
Genre: Literary Fiction
Pages: 272
Source: Publisher
Rating: 5/5
“Lazarus is Dead” by Richard Beard is fantastically written – it recounts the story of Lazarus and his resurrection on three different levels and that is what makes the book so good – in terms of plot and the writing style. I had to say this as soon as I began the review because I loved the way Beard has made sense of the plot. It isn’t easy to…

Title: Joseph Anton: A Memoir
Author: Salman Rushdie
Publisher: Jonathan Cape, Random House
ISBN: 978-0-224-09397-2
Genre: Non-Fiction, Memoirs
Pages: 633
Source: Publisher
Rating: 5/5
So I have a confession to make: I have not been able to complete a single Rushdie novel, except for Haroun and the Sea of Stories and I am not ashamed of it, only because I have tried reading his works time and again. I haven’t been able to cross the hundredth page. That is the relationship I share with Salman Rushdie’s books.
I started reading,…

Title: Jerusalem: Chronicles from the Holy City
Author: Guy Delisle
Publisher: Jonathan Cape
ISBN: 978-0224096690
Genre: Graphic Novel
Pages: 336
Source: Publisher
Rating: 5/5
Graphic novels always make it easier for a story to tell what it has to. They have the sense of making the reader understand what it wants to without putting in too much effort. Maybe that is why I understand politics best through a comic strip. That works for me on more than one level.
“Jerusalem: Chronicles from the Holy City” by Guy Delisle is one…

Title: The Marriage Plot
Author: Jeffrey Eugenides
Publisher: Picador USA
ISBN: 978-1250014764
Genre: Literary Fiction
Pages: 416
Source: Publisher
Rating: 4/5
After reading two of his earlier books, there was no way I was going to miss reading Jeffrey Eugenides’ third book, “The Marriage Plot”. It is very different from the other two though and that’s what I liked about it. An author’s real talent lies in the different genres he or she is willing to explore and takes that risk. If the risk pays off then nothing like it.…

Title: Silent House
Author: Orhan Pamuk
Publisher: Hamish Hamilton, Penguin
ISBN: 978-0-670-08559-0
Genre: Literary Fiction, Translation
Pages: 334
Source: Publisher
Rating: 5/5
Not everyone I have met who like reading, like Orhan Pamuk. They say they cannot get into his books. Of course. It is true. One needs a lot of patience and time on hand to be able to read and appreciate a Pamuk. The first time I started on was with, “My Name is Red” and it took me two rereads to be able to understand the intricacies…

Title: Ten Thousand Saints
Author: Eleanor Henderson
Publisher: Quercus Books
ISBN: 978-1780872179
Genre: Literary Fiction
Pages: 400
Source: Publisher
Rating: 4/5
It took me quite a lot of time to get into the skin of this book and enjoy it. “Ten Thousand Saints” by Eleanor Henderson wasn’t an easy read to begin with. Let me directly get to the plot.
The book begins on New Year’s Eve 1987 in a fictional college town Lintonburg, Vermont. Two teenagers, Teddy and Jude are out partying with their new friend Eliza from Manhattan.…

Title: The Illicit Happiness of Other People
Author: Manu Joseph
Publisher: Fourth Estate
ISBN: 978-9350293645
Genre: Literary Fiction
Pages: 352
Source: Publisher
Rating: 5/5
Manu Joseph is definitely the most promising writer on the Indian Literary scene as of now and well-deserved of that place in my opinion. Serious Men made a great impact in the literary world and rightly so. It was a sweeping novel of family, doubt, and loss in an emerging India, full of hopes, aspirations and the need to get somewhere. Manu Joseph writes with a…

Title: The Man Who Tried to Remember
Author: Makarand Sathe
Publisher: Penguin Viking
ISBN: 9780670086412
Genre: Literary Fiction, Translated Fiction
Pages: 248
Source: Publisher
Rating: 5/5
It would take a lot for a translated work to be detached from its original or the perception of what it might be like to read the original and savor the book in its translated form. It happens to me all the time. I wish I could read those Spanish and Japanese works in their true form; however I do not know the languages.…

Title: Aerogrammes and Other Stories
Author: Tania James
Publisher: Vintage Books
ISBN: 978-8-184-00301-7
Genre: Short Stories
Pages: 180
Source: Publisher
Rating: 5/5
Whenever I am about to read a new collection of stories from someone who is just about trying to step foot in this genre, I get very apprehensive. I love the short-story genre. It is something else. If I could, I would have written a piece in praise of the short story. I just would have so much to say.
With this, I must talk about the short-story…

Title: The Daylight Gate
Author: Jeanette Winterson
Publisher: Hammer Books
ISBN: 978-0-09-956185-9
Genre: Literary Fiction
Pages: 194
Source: Publisher
Rating: 4/5
I have always loved what Winterson writes. I have read everything that she has written, including her book for children and her non-fictional pieces as well. To me, she is everything a writer should be, but then again that is purely a personal opinion. I was overjoyed on receiving a copy of her latest, “The Daylight Gate” and could not stop reading it.
Here is something about the book:…