When I first read the premise of Joshua Mathew’s “The Last White Hunter” the immediate thought I had was this – I had walked the same streets as Donald Anderson. I couldn’t believe that such a person existed in Bangalore, and that I had probably walked past his house without ever knowing anything about him....
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...
“The Tyre” by C.J. Dubois caught my attention with its brilliantly hued cover. But what made me decide to read it was the fact that it’s a book set in India but written by a Frenchman. Surely, that combination is bound to be very interesting. And it didn’t disappoint. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher...
I have read a few Europe Comics in recent times and I have loved most of them. “Turntable” by Zidrou and Raphael Beuchot is no exception. Based on the true story of Belgian violinist and composer Eugene Ysaye’s trip to Africa, Turntable is a breezy read. The book begins with Ysaye saying goodbye to his...
“I was on my own, as I surely always had been, from the beginning to the end.” This thought underlines Salva Rubio’s graphic novel “The Photographer of Mauthausen,” which is set in the concentration camp of the same name during Nazi Germany. The photographer in question is Francisco Boix, a Spanish photographer who survived the war...
I received The Stolen Bicycle as an ARC from NetGalley, and that’s how I came to read this Wu Ming-yi’s brilliant novel set in Taiwan. Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2018, The Stolen Bicycle retains its distinct flavour thanks to the masterful translation by Darryl Sterk, a teacher at the National Taiwan University specializing...
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...
This is my first Turgenev, and what a glorious one at that! Vivid, impressive, and complex, ‘First Love’ is about 16-year-old Vladimir’s conviction that he has found the girl of his dreams in 21-year-old Zinaida. He first espies her in a garden surrounded by a gaggle of besotted young men all waiting to do her bidding, and...
I finally turned the last “page” of Tomi Adeyemi’s Children of Blood and Bone yesterday night, on my Kindle, and I waited. For that empty feeling that comes when a tale well told comes to a finish. For that rush when you know that, that book’s sequel is coming soon. But I didn’t feel any...
