‘Akbar of Hindustan’: Parvati Sharma’s biography presents its subject with all his ambiguities

This book isn’t trying to reassure us with the complacency of knowing things.

Supriya Nair

· Apr 30, 2022 · 08:30 am

This book calls out India’s political betrayals sharply, but does not shake the edifice hard enough

With inspiring moral conviction, KS Komireddi’s ‘Malevolent Republic’ retraces the path of treachery that modern India has treaded since 1947.

Supriya Nair

· Jun 29, 2019 · 07:30 am

‘Cat Person’ took the world by storm – do the rest of Kristen Roupenian’s short stories match up?

The other stories in ‘You Know You Want This’, Roupenian’s debut collection, delve into similar themes of humiliation and sexual relationships but lack impact.

Supriya Nair

· Feb 23, 2019 · 08:30 am

Shakespeare: Not a parent but a twin of modern Indian cinema and theatre, says a delicious new book

Jonathan Gil Harris’s ‘Masala Shakespeare’ is a mixture of cultural criticism, film journalism, social history and lively, opinionated autobiography.

Supriya Nair

· Feb 17, 2019 · 08:30 am

This meditative novel about devadasis and the consumption of art is held back by its moralism

In ‘The Undoing Dance’, Srividya Natarajan uses the story of a family to reflect on the history of dance and the ownership of artistry.

Supriya Nair

· Dec 22, 2018 · 06:00 am

‘Defiance was a strong part of it’: Why Alan Hollinghurst began writing about gay life and history

An interview with the British author on his pathbreaking debut, the ‘gay novel’ today and the problem with nostalgia.

Supriya Nair

· Dec 08, 2018 · 07:00 am

This earnest but trivial book about Brahmins in Varanasi strives to avoid intellectual engagement

Aatish Taseer’s ‘The Twice-Born’ denies the application of economics, political science, and sociology to its reportage.

Supriya Nair

· Nov 11, 2018 · 08:30 am

An imaginative biography of Jahangir shows how the distant past can be made intimately recognisable

Parvati Sharma’s book flouts convention and treats Jahangir as a literary character, with sympathy for both his genius and limitations.

Supriya Nair

· Nov 10, 2018 · 07:00 am

‘Red Birds’: Mohammed Hanif’s most sorrowful novel is swallowed up by its grief

The writer’s third novel, told by multiple first-person narrators, is set in an unnamed, war-torn Muslim country.

Supriya Nair

· Oct 06, 2018 · 08:30 am

‘English, August’ is getting a special 30-year edition. But does it still hold up in 2018?

The fixations of Upamanyu Chatterjee’s novel, featuring the aimless bureaucrat Agastya Sen, do not age well, but the book retains its sharp voice.

Supriya Nair

· Aug 25, 2018 · 12:30 pm

‘Half The Night is Gone’: This unmistakably great novel stops short with its political provocations

Amitabha Bagchi’s new novel is nevertheless an extraordinary telling of the bonds between past and present, with an atmosphere unlike in any recent book.

Supriya Nair

· Jul 14, 2018 · 08:30 am

Vikram Chandra on ‘Sacred Games’: ‘I cried though I know what’s going to happen to the characters’

The acclaimed writer on the Netflix adaptation of his 2006 novel: ‘‘People in the series talk the way Indians talk.’

Supriya Nair

· Jul 02, 2018 · 07:30 pm