Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart
2 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
The Thirteenth Day & A Broken Sun – War & Mythology in Aditya Iyengar’s books
5 years ago Shaili Desai 0
There is something banal about war. So much of the ordinary about death. There is nothing probably more unoriginal than death and destruction. However, numerous writers and poets have written about war and tried to romanticise the essential nature of war. Some have told of love stories, some have written about a coming of age, Read More
Hush a Bye Baby by Deepanjana Pal – Book Review
5 years ago Shaili Desai 0
Deepanjana Pal’s first fictional novel – Hush a bye baby – starts with a scene headlined by a Radio Jockey on air with well-known Mumbai gynaecologist Dr. Nandita Rai, taking questions on sex and women’s bodies. Rai is confident, witty and naughty in her answers and very, very feminist. It’s a classic first chapter with 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
5 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
Why Shashi Tharoor is a Hindu
5 years ago Shaili Desai 1
Reading the book Why I am a Hindu by Shashi Tharoor, reminded me of a dinner table conversation of more than a year ago. It was an educated, white collared, Hindu, upper class dinner table in one of the many high rises of Gurugram. The table also seemed to have equal male and female representation. The Read More
Fantasy and adventure in Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
5 years ago Shaili Desai 0
Neil Gaiman is undoubtedly one of the best fantasy novelists of all time. He has a special way with words, and a rather wondrous way of creating alternate fantastical worlds. They are intricately and beautifully crafted. But is Neverwhere one his finest works? Not in my opinion, at least. A saga of a new world Read More