Book rack
Kashmir blues Urmilla Deshpande Tranquebar, 2010, pp 355, Rs 325 Naia, looking for her birth family in India after the bizarre death of her parents in southern California.
Leon, photographer, who cannot resist a chance to put his life in danger. Samaad, Kashmiri, fighting to save a piece of his homeland from destruction by the two countries on either side of it. Kashmir Blues is an unexpected journey — the atmospheric streets of Bombay and Delhi, the valley of flowers, guns, Shiva, carpets, love and death.
Tiger hills
Sarita Mandanna
Penguin, 2010, pp 451, Rs 599
Sarita Mandanna’s Tiger Hills has created great pre-publication excitement worldwide. It has already received high praise with The Daily Express describing the novel as ‘a staggering achievement, especially as it is a first novel’ and Sarita as a ‘major new talent’. The Telegraph was among the many publications that selected it as the one book to watch out for.
aftertaste
Namita Devidayal
Random House, 2010, pp 292, Rs 399
Aftertaste is full of riveting details about baniya families from the 40s down to the 80s — in these pages you will see a vivid portrait of Kalbadevi, the old business district of Mumbai, how the unofficial banking system worked and learn secrets about the mithai business. You’ll also see the private lives of these families.
A masterful spirit: homi j Bhabha
Indira Chowdhury and Ananya Dasgupta
Penguin, 2010, pp 240, Rs 1299
Homi Jehangir Bhabha, one of India’s outstanding scientists, shouldered the beginnings of India’s nuclear programme. A Masterful Spirit presents the life and achievements of the man through previously unpublished letters, and photographs and paintings, and the recollections of his family, friends, colleagues and students.
high low in-between
Imraan Coovadia
HarperCollins, 2010, pp 268, Rs 299
The violent death of her biologist husband forces Nafisa into a world of illegal organ transplants, bribery, scientific and political controversy. With an acute sense of disruptions of contemporary South Africa, and its keen feeling for love and loss, High Low In-between reveals Nafisa’s relationships with the people close to her and the anarchic currents of life and death she discovers.
Delhi calm
Vishwajyoti Ghosh
HarperCollins, 2010, pp 246, Rs 499
Imagine waking up one morning to learn that all your rights as a citizen have been suspended this moment onwards. Imagine living the way the State tells you too. — being told how, where and when to laugh, live or love. Find out in Vishwajyoti Ghosh’s graphic re-imagining of one of the most seminal moments in the history of Indian democracy.
The sacred grove
Daman Singh
HarperCollins, 2010, pp 237, Rs 250
He may be only 13, but Ashwin knows that he is going to be a superstar. Specially with the arrival of his new cricket coach, Rafiq the driver. As the son of a district collector in a small town in central India, Ashwin has little to worry about, except his mother’s annoying pregnancy and his father’s alarming principles. Fast and fun, but with an edge that hurts, The Sacred Grove is a story about growing up in troubled times.
