Books to read

Here are a few suggestions for your next read...

The Courtesan, The Mahatma,
And The Italian Brahmin

Manu S Pillai

Context, 2019, pp 394, Rs 599

Why did an Italian go native as a sanyasi in 17th- century Madurai? What might have happened if the Mahatma had lived? To read the essays in this collection is to be absorbed in the past, in the action and drama and reflections of the men and women who form a part of our collective memory as Indians.

Xiu Yang: Self-cultivation for a healthier, happier and balanced life

Mimi Kuo-Deemer

Orion Spring, 2019, pp 249, Rs 399

Xiu Yang promotes the idea that inner balance leads to outer radiance. By tending to the field of our own bodies, hearts, minds and relationships, we can start making positive changes within our lives and in the lives of others.

The Nickel Boys

Colson Whitehead

Hachette, 2019, pp 224, Rs 599

In this bravura follow-up to the Pulitzer Prize-winning book of The Underground Railroad, Colson Whitehead brilliantly dramatises another strand of history through the story of two boys sentenced to a hellish reform school in Jim Crow-era Florida.

Blueprint: The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society

Nicholas A Christakis

Hachette, 2019, pp 544, Rs 699

Nicholas A Christakis introduces the compelling idea that our genes affect not only our bodies and behaviours, but also the ways in which we make societies, ones that are surprisingly similar worldwide.

Operation X

Captain MNR Samant & Sandeep Unnithan

Harper Collins, 2019, pp 256, Rs 499

1971. Sheikh Mujibur Rehman in East Pakistan has just won an electoral mandate to become the prime minister of Pakistan. Accustomed to treating the eastern wing of the country as a colony, the ruling disposition in West Pakistan is not pleased, and launches a genocide against the residents of East.

Fear of Lions

Amita Kanekar

Hachette, 2019, pp 348, Rs 399

Set 12 years into the rule of the austere Aurangzeb Alamgir, in a time of impossible wealth and unbearable want, and of a caste society on the threshold of capitalism, Amita Kanekar’s powerful and intricately woven novel tells the story of an unlikely rebellion that almost brought imperial Dilli to its knees.

The Best Lies

Sarah Lyu

Simon Pulse, 2019, pp 352, Rs 1,029

Remy Tsai was happy. She had her boyfriend Jack, and Elise, her best friend who understood her better than anyone else in the world. But now Jack is dead, shot through the chest… And it was Elise who pulled the trigger. Was it self-defense or something else?

The Asuras of Antariksh

Veena S Rao

Vitasta, 2019, pp 311, Rs 395

A deal is struck by a government agency for building a satellite and leasing it out to a foreign company. The deal progresses and transitions smoothly to the succeeding government. But a scandal erupts, and the government cancels the deal.