fiction

Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart

3 years ago Shaili Desai 0
Shuggie Bain is Douglas Stuart’s debut novel which went on to win the The 2020 Booker Prize. Stuart is a fashion designer who started writing fiction on the side. With its frank portrayal of alcoholism, poverty and childhood bullying, the novel has won many accolades. Douglas Stuart shows a mirror into 1980s Glasgow, set in Read More

Beauty is a Wound – an Epic Indonesian story

5 years ago Shaili Desai 0
I found Beauty is a Wound in a bookshop at the Jakarta airport. The city of Jakarta has been nice so far. The people are easy going and helpful. I haven’t encountered the nasty traffic that people complain about – mostly it’s because we live very close to our work. Everything is a 10-min walk Read More

Book Review – Pyre by Perumal Murugan

5 years ago Shaili Desai 0
Pyre by Perumal Murugan has much to say – in a quiet, sweet manner. It is not a novel with what you would call a happy ending, and yet it has a romantic disposition. The novel centers around Saroja and Kumarasen, a young couple who marry for love. Theirs is an inter caste marriage and Kumarasen Read More

Stuff I’ve been reading, in February | 2018

6 years ago Shaili Desai 2
  Have I told you all how I started writing this blog? I was inspired by a book I had started reading, called Stuff I’ve been reading by Nick Hornby. Nick Hornby is best known for his books About a Boy and High Fidelity, both of which were adapted into movies of the same name. Read More

Em and the Big Hoom by Jerry Pinto | Book Review

6 years ago Shaili Desai 0
There is an extremely poignant moment in Em and the Big Hoom by Jerry Pinto when Imelda says this. Because the sky is so high and the crow shat in your left eye. I could tell you a lie but I don’t see why. The world is a game and the game is a tie. Read More

Men without Women by Haruki Murakami

6 years ago Shaili Desai 3
Men without Women is the latest work by Haruki Murakami and follows other internationally acclaimed works like 1Q84, Norwegian Wood and Kafka on the Shore. Men without Women is a set of seven stories by author, with a common theme – they’re all about men who have lost their women and find themselves alone. I Read More

Farewell Waltz by Milan Kundera and how I waltzed my way through it

6 years ago Shaili Desai 1
I finished reading Farewell Waltz by Milan Kundera yesterday night. Now, I have dozed off while reading this book on numerous occasions and this is what happened yesterday also, as I was trying to race my sleep to the finish. Unfortunately, my sleep got the better of me and I think I dozed off when Read More

Book Review : Murder with Bengali Characteristics by Shovon Chowdhury

8 years ago Shaili Desai 1
Shovon Chowdhury’s Murder with Bengali Characteristics is a sequel to his book The Competent Authority (Book Review | Author Interview). Although a sequel to the book, it is a stand alone novel. While The Competent Authority was a purely satirical novel, Murder with Bengali Characteristics is part sci-fi, part satirical and part crime fiction. Image Read More

Book Review: Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee

8 years ago Shaili Desai 3
Book Covers Amazon listed Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee as their most pre-ordered book since Rowling’s final book in the Harry Potter series – The Deathly Hallows (2007) and I’m not surprised why. In fact I think it was one of the most anticipated books of 2015. So, naturally, the expectations from the book Read More