Book Rack

From the world of literature

Lean Days

Manish Gaekwad

Harper Collins, 2018, Rs 399, pp 196

A story of an artist’s voyage through the country, mixing history with imagination, finding people and places whose stories he can tell along with his own. This is a book of journeys, romance, temptation and seeking a break from a tedious routine.

13 years

Ramchandra Singh, translated by Madhu Singh

Navayana, 2018, Rs 395, pp 207

Singh enters the Hardoi District Jail in Uttar Pradesh as a Naxalite undertrial. Barely 20, his life of expanding prospects is reduced to a life term. But he regenerates his gifts of empathy, humour, and above all, language, in a diary smuggled out by his friends.

Return to Jammu

V Raghunathan

Harper Collins, 2018, Rs 399, pp 341

Balan was raised in small cantonments of Jammu and Ambala in the 1960s. The story follows his struggles as he grows up and enrols at IIM Ahmedabad. He is certain that one of his fellow students is his childhood friend. But, she says she isn’t who he thinks she is.

Weaving Water

Ajeet Cour, translated by Masooma A & Meenu M

Speaking Tiger, 2018, Rs 499, pp 341

Growing up in pre-partition Lahore, Cour spent a childhood wrapped in warm and enticing experiences, despite a disciplinarian father. From such a beginning, her life moves on to a first, true love that is lost on account of a misunderstanding. This is a story of courage in the face of adversity.

The Curve of Chance

Vijay Raghav

Inkstate, 2018, Rs 250, pp 237

A collection of four intriguing short stories that are entwined with threads of chance and probability. A herpetologist, who explores the therapeutic effects of snake venom, a local drug lord, an honest police officer, and a maverick scientist are the well-sketched characters of these stories.

Travails with the Alien

Satyajit Ray, Edited by Sandip Ray

Harper Collins, 2018, Rs 699, pp 211

A slice of undocumented cinema history, it includes Ray’s detailed essay on the project with the full script of The Alien, as well as the original short story on which the screenplay was based. These are presented along with the correspondence between Ray, Arthur C Clarke, and other Hollywood producers.

The Cast

Danielle Steel

Pan Macmillan, 2018, Rs 299, pp 288

Whittier loves her work and adores her grown children, treasuring the time they spend together. After being married twice, she prefers to avoid the complications and uncertainties of a new love. But, after a chance meeting with television producer Zack Winter, everything changes.

Corridors of Time

Vinay Krishnan

G J Group, 2018, Rs 250, pp 209

Set in Bengaluru, a city of paradoxes, of gardens and garbage heaps, of technology and traffic snarls, this is a narrative of the human spirit. Rohan is an idealistic sports lover dealing with rejection, and Shyla is attracted to a married man, while Khalid fears nothing and no one anymore.