‘Mad Sisters of Esi’: A fantasy that runs smoothly on a dynamic form, emotions, and opaque magic

Tashan Mehta has a seductive conception of madness. In her novel it refers not to a loss of touch with reality but to the power to create it.

Sahana Hegde

· Oct 01, 2023 · 12:30 pm

‘Age of Vice’: Nothing good happens in this novel of power and corruption, and that’s a good thing

Every time you think you’ve met the spider in Deepti Kapoor’s new novel, they turn out to be another fly.

Sahana Hegde

· Dec 24, 2022 · 12:30 pm

‘Battles of Our Own’: A harsh reminder of how political power imbalances control individual desires

Jagadish Mohanty’s ‘Battles of Our Own’ (Nija Nija Panipatha) was published in Odia in 1990 and has just been translated into English.

Sahana Hegde

· May 22, 2022 · 12:30 pm

‘Happy Stories, Mostly’ is in fact a collection of melancholy stories about people who do bad things

Author Norman Erikson Pasaribu doesn’t put them on trial.

Sahana Hegde

· Apr 24, 2022 · 05:30 pm

Perumal Murugan’s ‘Resolve’ is an extended meditation on the politics of marriage in India

The dynamics are captured in a cast of compelling characters.

Sahana Hegde

· Feb 05, 2022 · 12:30 pm

‘400 Days’: Despite its clichéd ingredients, Chetan Bhagat’s new novel is his most readable yet

Stock characters and stock relationships, but the writing has matured.

Sahana Hegde

· Nov 13, 2021 · 12:30 pm

‘House Next to the Factory’: How to write readable stories where nothing much really ever happens

Sonal Kohli’s fiction is neither ‘character-driven’ nor ‘plot-driven’. Mostly it is not driven at all.

Sahana Hegde

· Oct 17, 2021 · 12:30 pm

‘Delhi’: M Mukundan’s novel tracks a series of misfortunes faced by Malayalis in the capital

Against a backdrop of chaos, the characters do their best to build themselves dignified lives.

Sahana Hegde

· Oct 09, 2021 · 12:30 pm

Even if you know everything about Emperor Ashoka, there are very good reasons to read ‘Asoca’

Irwin Alan Sealy’s first person novel succeeds in the personality of the emperor that it creates—a less than extraordinary man with an extraordinary life.

Sahana Hegde

· Sep 11, 2021 · 12:30 pm

‘Gods and Ends’: Lindsay Pereira’s novel offers an unflinching eye for stories of the wretched

Pereira has an ear for dialogue, and it’s a strength he plays to, even flaunts, in this novel set among Goans living in a decrepit Mumbai building.

Sahana Hegde

· Jul 11, 2021 · 12:30 pm

‘Shamal Days’: Marked by sorrow and self-loathing, this novel of neuroses is an absorbing read

Sabin Iqbal’s new novel is a convincing depiction of the way unhappiness can seep into one’s very worldview.

Sahana Hegde

· Jun 12, 2021 · 12:30 pm

‘The Heart Asks Pleasure First’: This debut tries to do too many things for a focused novel

Karuna Ezara Parikh’s novel is a story of star-crossed lovers, but it refuses to be just that.

Sahana Hegde

· Apr 11, 2021 · 05:30 pm