‘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

· 3 hours ago

A mongoose detective peels back some of the layers of the natural world in this marvellous comic

Rohan Chakravarty’s ‘Ruddy Detective’ isn’t the sort who will dispense justice or play saviour if it means disrupting nature’s balance.

Jai Arjun Singh

· Yesterday · 08:30 am

‘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

Amia Srinivasan’s ‘Right to Sex’ asks the critical questions that needed to be asked

These essays reveal the problematic relationship between pedagogy, politics, and nature with respect to sex.

Reetika Kalita

· Oct 03, 2021 · 05:30 pm

Amartya Sen’s memoir reveals the sheer diversity of influences on the making of an intellectual

‘Home in the World’ Sen comes across as an unstoppable force with an extraordinary life.

Umang Poddar

· Sep 26, 2021 · 12:30 pm

Why Partha Chatterjee’s new commentary on nationalism is as relevant for Nepal as for India

In ‘The Truths and Lies of Nationalism’, Chatterjee exposes the problems of a single, unidirectional narrative of the nation state.

Ujjwal Prasai

· Sep 25, 2021 · 12:30 pm

‘A Rude Life’: Journalist Vir Sanghvi’s memoir displays a classic case of Delhi Syndrome

There are many classic symptoms of Delhi Syndrome. But three particularly define the affliction, and which are most obviously in evidence in ‘A Rude Life’.

Keshava Guha

· Sep 25, 2021 · 08:30 am

Nawaaz Ahmed’s novel ‘Radiant Fugitives’ inspects troubled relationships but still offers hope

An intergenerational exploration of the lives of justifiably angry women.

Saloni Sharma

· Sep 19, 2021 · 12:30 pm

What does living in a democracy mean for the poor of India? This book goes to the people to find out

The cast of characters readers will meet is staggering, and necessary, to understand the complex relationship between democracy and some the poorest people.

Suryakant Waghmore

· Sep 19, 2021 · 08:30 am

What does the writing of Constitutions have to do with wars? Plenty, as this book proves

Linda Colley’s ‘The Gun, the Ship, and the Pen’ presents a profoundly global and lucid story of constitution-writing.

Dinyar Patel

· Sep 18, 2021 · 08:30 am

Elif Shafak’s new novel shows us how it’s not just humans who remember the trauma of war and loss

In ‘The Island of Missing Trees’, the pain passes down the generations.

Sneha Krishnan

· Sep 12, 2021 · 12:30 pm

‘The Earthspinner’: Anuradha Roy’s new novel fluidly tells unconnected stories and overwhelms you

What describes the expanse of themes in this novel is both change and the resistance to it.

Gayathri Sankar

· Sep 12, 2021 · 08:30 am