Author: shilparsonkar@outlook.com

The Illicit Happiness of Other People | Manu Joseph

Why Unni did what he did? This question is at the heart of Manu Joseph’s Chacko family tale titled The Illicit Happiness of Other People. It traces lives of Chacko family members- the downward spiralling father Ousep, disturbed Mother Mariamma and perplexed teenage brother Toma. True to his journalistic work and using the trick of […]

Bear Town | Fredrik Backman

We are the bears….. We are the bears from Bear Town!! A small, secluded village lies in one forgotten corner of Sweden; sleepy, downward bound in terms of economic growth but famous for only one thing, it’s Ice Hockey Team. Peter used to be one of the most famous and well-loved player of Bear Town. […]

The Cairo Trilogy- Sugar Street | Naguib Mahfouz

The end of a trilogy but not of the lives of Al-Jawad family. Like the real life, their lives continue beyond the ending of this mighty novel. In this penultimate book of the series; the focus veers slightly from the main house of Al-Jawad family towards the extended branches living at the Palace of Desire […]

The Cairo Trilogy- Palace of Desire | Naguib Mahfouz

The lyrics of a famous Hindi song were the ones came to my mind when I completed the second novel in the Cairo Trilogy. As the song goes, this novel talks about descending into recesses of one’s soul because of unrequited love. हम बेखुदी में तुमको पुकारे चले गये हम… हम बेखुदी में तुमको पुकारे […]

Discovering Charms of Uttarakhand With My Mother

“I understand that they have came here to learn Yoga and Indian Spirituality; but besides that what they exactly do? Rest of the day or remaining of their stay? How about the cost of living, earning etc. how do they manage?”She was so full of questions, perplexed looking around at all these ashrams and their […]

The Cairo Trilogy – Palace Walk | Naguib Mahfouz

The Cairo Trilogy is more than just a book; it functions more like a time machine, taking you on a trip of bye gone era. This Cairo is far off from the pyramids and pharaohs you have heard of. This is a city of living, breathing neighbourhoods behind the massive gates & narrow alleyways of […]

Belinda | Anant Samant

अनंत सामंत यांच्या कथा आणि कादंबऱ्या त्यांच्या अतिशय वेगळ्या अशा दर्यावर्दी भवतालामुळे, त्यातील खलाशी आणि देशोदेशीच्या नानाविध लोकांच्या कहाण्या मांडण्यामुळे अतिशय प्रसिद्ध आहेत. त्यांच्या ह्या वेगळेपणामुळे त्यांचा असा खास वाचकवर्ग आहे. बेलिंदा ही शीर्षकथा आणि इतर लघुकथा असलेला हा कथासंग्रह देखील आपली निराशा करत नाही. ह्यामधील बेलिंदा आणि ती ही कथा हि समुद्राच्या, जहाजच्या प्रवासात […]

The Dutch House By Ann Patchett

There is a castle and it has a king; self assured , almost content with his self-built empire, his queen and their children. But is he really think that they are content? His wife is happy being queen of the castle? Our protagonist and younger of these two kids is searching answers for these questions […]

Prodigal Summer | Barbara Kingsolver

At the heart of this book is loneliness. And the book weaves it’s theme of primal instincts around this. The story revolves around Lena, Garnett and Deanna- these are our central characters having their own character graphs and stories happening around or about them. Each of one of them is lonely in their own way, […]

The Lethal White By Robert Galbraith

Ushering into 2020 with a strong urge to read more. Well, I won’t call it a New Year Resolution per se; as they are hard to keep. But, I will like to call it as a personal goal to have more times with the books beginning with this year. Well the first book to appear […]