Reading ‘The Dawn of Everything’ from India: What if the past was a more enlightened place?

In their new book, David Graeber and David Wengrow imaginatively challenge the conventionally accepted arc of the progress of civilisation.

Durba Chattaraj

· Feb 12, 2022 · 05:30 pm

Author’s lament: Why Amazon closing down Westland feels like we’re living in a Mohsin Hamid novel

‘What, really, is a book worth in the world? This overnight shutdown feels more personal still.’

Durba Chattaraj

· Feb 03, 2022 · 08:30 am

‘The Non-Essential Ashis Nandy’ is essential reading for our times. Especially for the young

Clues, partial answers and starting directions to solving some of the great puzzles and questions playing out in India today.

Durba Chattaraj

· Apr 10, 2021 · 12:30 pm

A blueprint for creating new readers in the post-pandemic world (or, what publishers need to do)

To create a new generation of readers in India, we will need a new generation of books.

Durba Chattaraj

· May 27, 2020 · 05:30 pm

This book retrieves the horrific memories of a massacre in Bengal from the dustbin of history

In 1979, the Left Front government’s attack on refugees in Marichjhapi led to hundreds of deaths. ‘Blood Island’ is the oral history of survivors.

Durba Chattaraj

· Sep 21, 2019 · 07:30 am

A book featuring lynching photographs from America brings home a reality we cannot ignore

Allowing us to view lynching from a distance, ‘Without Sanctuary’ makes us realise our own complicity.

Durba Chattaraj

· Feb 03, 2019 · 05:30 pm

A French novel, written by a Mauritian writer, brings home our experience in India like few books do

‘Eve Out Of Her Ruins’ is written by Ananda Devi, a writer of Indian origin from Mauritius.

Durba Chattaraj

· Sep 28, 2017 · 06:30 pm

Arundhati Roy’s novel lays bare the horrors and hopes of our times. This is not holiday homework

Whatever your political leaning, left, right or neither, you can’t stop reading this book.

Durba Chattaraj

· Jun 05, 2017 · 08:30 am

‘To me fiction can never be a manifesto with animated characters doing your bidding:’ Arundhati Roy

‘Dancing on the streets that we have marched on...even while the lynch mobs are out, and the vigilantes...spit and jeer – that’s utmost happiness.’

Durba Chattaraj

· Jun 02, 2017 · 08:30 am

Read dead people. (Or, why John Berger matters to you who are on Instagram and Snapchat and Shots)

Also, why John Berger is important in the age of Donald Trump.

Durba Chattaraj

· Jan 14, 2017 · 06:30 pm