This is what happens when an accomplished novelist is also a brilliant historian as well as a noted columnist; essays mixing all these different elements to present us with a nuanced view of South East Asia. The namesake of the book titled ‘Dancing in Cambodia’ takes up to the tiny Buddhist nation of Cambodia; neighbouring…
Tag: history
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…
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…
A Gentleman In Moscow | Amor Towles
The storyline is quite simple and without much plot twists; but what makes it engrossing is how the story is told. On face of it, it seems like it’s confined within the four walls of the Hotel Metropol just like it’s leading man Alexander Ilyich Rostov. Oh, the charms of getting pleasantly surprised!!!
Origin | Dan Brown
I picked up this book with some expectations about the author – unusual subject choices for his novels, ability to seamlessly mix reality with fiction (fictional reality?) and the wonderful geek hero of his books – Robert Langdon. To be fair, would like to clear out that I’ve read only The Da Vinci Code so…
The Girl In The Spider’s Web | The Alice Network
Some feisty women those were! Mu summer reads comprised of two books of strong willed, spirited women. Although they belonged to different times and professions, reading them one after another was sheer pleasure. Had to admit that this was first encounter with Lisbeth Salander- the hardened, determined & intelligent girl of the Millennium Series. Considering…
The Two Hotel Francforts
This book came to me as part of prize won for my last year’s readathon of reading 30 books in span of a single year. Since this was my first book by this author; I actually started reading it with a blank mind and on an afterthought it seems to be a wise decision. As…
The Lowland | Jhumpa Lahiri
A book penned by Jhumpa Lahiri is a promise to enter a wonderland of humane tales. This book too traverse into the usual territory of her previous writings- that of lives of immigrant Indians (specially Bengalis) in U.S.A. What makes The Lowland different is it’s venturing into territory of Naxalbari, the uprisings thereafter in Kolkata…
Shodh
After hearing tonnes of praises for this book, I decided to finally give it a shot. And was I happy, yes indeed!! It was such a thrilling ride. This book handles a kind of not so developed genre in Marathi literature world called Historical Fiction. Yes, there are tonnes of books based on historical people…
Shikhandi – The plight of Amba | Devdutt Pattanaik
My first read of the year – stories from ancient land with the theme of queerness running through them. To begin with the author – Devdutt Pattanaik; a noted mythologist discusses this theme from the viewpoint of Indian and Non-Indian philosophies. This view is better explained by giving examples not only from Indian subcontinent but…