Book Rack Column

Book rack

Dopehri

Pankaj Kapur

Harper Collins, 2019, pp 110, Rs 299

Legendary film and theatre personality Pankaj Kapur’s first novel is a wonderfully evocative work of great charm, wry humour, and quiet power, a story that readers will fall in love with. It’s a novella set in the streets of Lucknow where sits the haveli of an old, lonely woman, Amma Bi. This is her story.

The Daughter from a Wishing Tree

Sudha Murty

Penguin, 2019, pp 192, Rs 250

India’s much-loved and bestselling author Sudha Murty takes you on an empowering journey — through the yarns forgotten in time-abounding with remarkable women who will remind you of the strong female influences in your life.

Suncatcher

Romesh Gunesekera

Bloomsbury, 2019, pp 336, Rs 699

Taut and luminous, graceful and wild, Suncatcher is a poignant coming-of-age novel about difficult friendships and sudden awakenings. Mesmerisingly, it charts the loss of innocence and our recurring search for love — or consolation — bringing these extraordinary lives into our own.

Insurgent Empire

Priyamvada Gopal

Simon & Schuster, 2019, pp 515 , Rs 699

Insurgent Empire shows how Britain’s enslaved and colonial subjects were active agents in their own liberation. What more, they shaped British ideas of freedom and emancipation back in the United Kingdom.

The Last Seance

Agatha Christie

Harper Collins, 2019, pp 368, Rs 299

This haunting compendium gathers together all of Christie’s spookiest and most macabre short stories, some featuring her timeless detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. Finally together in one volume, it shines a light on the darker side of Agatha Christie, one that she herself relished.

The Aladia Sisters

Khalid Mohamed

Om Books, 2019, pp 352, Rs 295

Traversing the era of the British Raj, the Partition and India’s Independence to the here and now of the Internet millennium, the story of six sisters of a patriarchal Muslim family is investigated by a journalist.

Child’s Play

Danielle Steel

Pan Macmillan, 2019, pp 288, Rs 399

The lessons our children teach us are the hardest ones. What do we do when our children don’t pursue our hopes for them? In this riveting new novel, Danielle Steel explores how families can evolve and grow in unexpected ways. Sometimes, the surprising choices our children make are the right ones... better than what we wanted for them.

The Girl and the Tiger

Paul Rosolie

Penguin, 2019, pp 400, Rs 399

When Isha is sent away to live with her grandparents on the Indian countryside, she discovers a sacred grove where a young Bengal tiger has taken refuge. She knows that the ever-shrinking forests of India mean there are few places left for a tiger to hide. When the local villagers also discover the tiger, Isha finds herself in a ‘life or death’ controversy.