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Indian Library

28 Literary Review DELHI THE HINDU Magazine
Sunday, March 3, 2019

BROWSE FICTION
A Patchwork Family
Mukta Sathe
Speaking Tiger
₹299
• This is a tale of an unusual
friendship and battle won
against odds. Young and
idealistic, Janaki is eager to
serve the cause of justice as a
lawyer. Her only confidant is
Ajoba, an elderly friend of her
grandfather, who supported
her through her childhood.
They have one feature in
common: they have both lost
their own families.

A Bend in the River of Life
Marianne de Nazareth
Leadstart Publishing Pvt Ltd
₹199
• Sabrina and her sister,
Samara, are Anglo­Indian girls
raised by free­spirited parents.
Tragedy strikes in the form of
Parkinson’s, which reduces the
parents to a shadow of what
they once were. The sisters
watch their parents
degenerate slowly. Through all
this, they learn the value of
living in the moment.

Diary of a Malayali Madman
N. Prabhakaran, trs Jayasree Download Indian Library App
Kalathil #70929
Harper Perennial India
₹399
• Sahitya Akademi Award
winner N. Prabhakaran weaves SENSUOUS LINES Caravaggio’s oil, ‘The Musicians or Concert of Youths’. WIKI COMMONS
the nitty­gritty of small­town BROMANCE
lives into his stories, which are
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steeped in folklore, factional
politics and intricacies of
relationships. The people here
have an uncanny ability to Beautiful and fragile
expose the fault lines between
the real and the unreal.

Roar as a dream
Cecelia Ahern
HarperCollins
₹399
• The women in these stories The book’s world and its contradictions are always vivid,
are all of us: the women who
befriend us, the women who and yet those contradictions are never quite realised
encourage us, the women who
make us brave. From ‘The
Woman Who Slowly ADITYA SUDARSHAN lesson in this regard, from the very Hindu sect, located in the midst of
Disappeared’ to ‘The Woman baldness of those conflicts that it Muslim settlements, a group of 11­ and
Who Was Kept on the Shelf’, hich is easier, to have advertises. “Two teenage boys grapple 12­year­old boys live, study and play.
there are 30 strong women conflict or to live in peace? with their mutual attraction in a Among them is the book’s protagonist,
who tell touching, often Obviously, one would say, spiritual institution where same­sex Anirvan, who is proficient in both
hilarious, stories. Wit is far easier to pick relationships is [sic] meditation and debating; his
fights. But there is a deeper sense in criminalized,” says the blurb. classmate, Kajol, a topper
which genuine conflict is the harder This seems a self­evident student whom Anirvan
Kaalkoot and more worthwhile attainment, and clash: the goadings of desire begins to desire, and vice
S. Venkatesh peace a cloying sedative, always versus the values of “...a versa; their magnetic hostel
TreeShade Books pressing. The craft of storytelling world that does not recognize warden, Kamal Swami aka
₹350 reminds us of this paradox, because their kind of love.” Similarly The Lotus; and Sushant
• It is January 1944. In a good storytelling depends on the blatant is the other quandary Kane, an English teacher,
Himalayan hideout, freedom creation of conflict. It does not really the book flags (involving the who, though brought up in
fighter Manohar Rai has to depend on resolutions (tragedies have monastic life versus the the ashram, has an outsider’s
take a decision that could no resolution) but to the extent one political life) but before we charged perspective on it, as
mean life or death for millions fails to enter into conflict, one fails to consider how and why all well as an activist bent.
of people. Then in June 2018, a find one’s story. Here stands Saikat these turn out to be strangely These, and others, together
forgotten legend from the Majumdar’s The Scent of God, a fluent, illusory, let us dwell on the The Scent of God make up a wide­ranging
Himalayas is resurrected — significant narrative that scores on world of the book, where Saikat Majumdar milieu, nicely suited to the
KaalKoot will strike again.The secondary fronts, but seeks in vain to there is much to appreciate. Simon and Schuster showcasing of the book’s
only hope for survival lies rouse conflict in its heart. In an ashram­school run India themes, yet never just props
buried in the Himalayas. Moreover, it becomes an object by monks of an unnamed ₹499 for situations.