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Monday, August 18, 2025
TopicBook review

Topic: Book review

Dalmia’s ‘Fiction as History’ undercuts grand narratives to tell unspeakable tales

Her book is a lucid entry point for those unfamiliar with the Hindi novel in the past 150 odd years and offers a sharp analysis of tradition, nationalism, and modernity. 

‘The Bengalis’ does a thing that books of its kind rarely do: criticise the Bengalis

Sudeep Chakravarti's mammoth undertaking to trace the Bengalis from its genesis to now results in a detailed, intriguing, and confounding book.

Art and narrative that delineate the complexities associated with Northeastern identity

Edited by Parismita Singh, ‘Centrepiece’ brings to the readers stories of a region which still remains largely absent in the popular imagination.

‘The Dawn Watch’ is an attempt to understand Conrad in a globalised world

In Maya Jasanoff’s book 'The Dawn Watch', Joseph Conrad is placed in the context of world politics. Jasanoff refuses to treat Conrad as mythical personality

Sujatha Gidla’s ‘Ants Among Elephants’: Baring the caste bugs in India’s revolution

‘Your life is your caste, your caste is your life’, writes first-time author Sujatha Gidla, who has been unable to escape caste ostracism in faraway USA.

No Songs for Silence: A Review of Gulzar’s ‘Two’

In Two, Gulzar carves the facts of the partition to its bare bones in a masterpiece stoic prose

‘The Last Battle of Saraighat’ is a battle half-won

Rajat Sethi & Shubhrastha’s book eulogises the BJP’s victory in Assam, but fails to capture the truepicture of the Northeast and its complex issues.

R.K. Narayan through an Indian philosophical lens: Ranga Rao’s new book shines

In ‘R.K. Narayan: The Novelist and his Art’, Ranga Rao pleasantly surprises the reader by ushering in a new critical paradigm through the theory of gunas. 

A gripping story from pre-Partition Punjab

‘A Memoir of Pre-Partition Punjab’ traces the life and work of Ruchi Ram Sahni; freedom fighter, educationist and story-teller, Sahni wore many hats.

A chronicle of sexual violence and impunity

Will this 25 November, International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, make any difference?

On Camera

Postcards from Hyderabad—stories Europeans told about the city

For all their colonial underpinnings, postcards from Hyderabad also inadvertently preserve a trace of local memory: a glimpse of a street, a face, a forgotten name.

Navigating Trump’s tariffs is no child’s play. Indian toymakers are losing out on orders, enquiries

Indian toymakers are now exploring new markets, but they want govt to negotiate a trade deal with US soon, introduce incentives and subsidies to make the industry more competitive.

What is Project Sudarshan Chakra, announced by Modi from ramparts of Red Fort

The project is meant to be a ‘protective shield that will keep expanding’, the PM said. It is on the lines of the ‘Golden Dome’ announced by Trump, it is learnt.

War of IAF, PAF doctrines: As Pakistan obsesses over numbers, India embraces risk, wins

Now that both IAF and PAF have made formal claims of having shot down the other’s aircraft in the 87-hour war in May, we can ask a larger question: do such numbers really matter?