A couple of years ago, when I turned the last page of Tonke Dragt’s The Letter for the King, I felt like I had travelled back in time. I felt I had mingled with knights on horses, visited medieval forts, and met quirky characters that made my head spin, along the way. I felt rejuvenated...
Ever since I can remember I have enjoyed reading translated books. I loved these words that showed me life on foreign shores. They were like whispers from another world telling me to open my eyes wider and see the world. I cannot pinpoint when and how exactly I started reading these translations. Perhaps it was...
Studio Ghibli’s movie “Grave of the Fireflies” about a brother and sister who try to survive during WWII in Japan is one of my favourite movies. But the fact that it was based on a short story by acclaimed Japanese novelist Akiyuki Nosaka got lost somewhere in the massive shadow of the Ghibli brand. I...
Gushing praise from SM is rare. But Kent Haruf is one novelist she cannot stop talking about. Mary Oliver is one of her favourites too. So, after going through my long queued up NetGalley books, I finally got down to reading Haruf’s “Our Souls at Night” and Oliver’s collection of selected essays “Upstream”. “Our Souls...
I have always loved reading Russian authors for their ability to delve deep into the psyche of life. I had never heard of Gaito Gazdanov before I got “The Beggar and Other Stories” from NetGalley and Pushkin Press (one of my favourite publishers now). Thank you for sending me the ARC for a review. “The...
When my friend and book blogger, Vishy, posted this glowing review of Tonke Dragt’s “The Letter for the King” last year, I was intrigued because it appeared to be all about knights and chivalry and adventure. Who doesn’t like the sound of that? A month or so ago, I found this book waiting to be...
I chanced upon M Mukundan’s “On the Banks of the Mayyazhi” in a second-hand bookshop. When I read the summary on the book jacket I was sceptical if I would like it because it had two themes that I haven’t been able to take to very much in the past – politics and magical realism. Boy was...
Over the past week, I finished reading three books. Two of them were extremely slim volumes, and absolute pageturners, which made it very easy for me to finish them quickly. Here are my reviews. Train Dreams by Denis Johnson Train Dreams pulled me in right away with its opening lines, In the summer of 1917 Robert...
The Drunken Botanist by Amy Stewart It’s been ages since I wrote a book review. Save for the teeny two sentences on Goodreads, I haven’t been doing much writing recently. Probably because I have been drunk on life in a good and bad way. Highs and lows one after the other have kept me distracted....
Sometime back I remember reading about netsukes. Drawn by their intricate carvings and plethora of depictions, I remember thinking how I would love to have one of them. The word ‘netsuke’ itself is derived from the Japanese characters “ne” and “tsuke” meaning root and attach respectively. This is what Chibi, the titular cat in Takashi...
