Zertab Quaderi

Fragments

Grey chips of rough cement  Rust rubble all around,

1m ago

A kaleidoscopic collection of stories by an outsider

Storytelling is not easy, especially when a few words portray a character with depth and just enough strokes to etch the social milieu for certain classes and creeds and the outcomes of political ideologies in post-independent Bangladesh.

2m ago

A tribute to the written word

'A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies'

3m ago

An exploration of the history and panoply of Indian Subcontinental cuisine

Review of ‘Forgotten Foods: Memories and Recipes from Muslim South Asia’ (Picador India, 2023) edited by Siobhan Lambert-Hurley, Tarana Husain Khan, and Claire Chambers

9m ago

Time-travelling through London and Tehran

The London Bookshop Affair and The Stationery Shop of Tehran are veritable time-travel portals. They offer a deep look at the political mishaps of the times

10m ago

'Prophet Song': Full of sound, fury, and significance

The 309-page-long dystopian novel is an oppressive account of Eilish who tries to keep her family from falling apart as everything around her crumbles.

11m ago

When fiction and nonfiction create a literary supernova

When a book mentions one of my favourite authors, W. Somerset Maugham, and the short description suggests betrayal, intrigue, secret affairs, political uprisings, failed marriages, and a whodunnit, there’s little I can do but take it.

1y ago

Rising from the ashes

The literary world was shaken on August 12, 2022, when the news of Salman Rushdie being stabbed on stage in upstate New York started to pour in. Ironically, he was all set to talk about his involvement in a project to create a refuge in the USA for those writers who are not safe in their country.

1y ago
February 24, 2024
February 24, 2024

Dynamics of race and riches in ‘Such a Fun Age’

In the thick of it is a young woman of colour who’s a late bloomer and eventually finds her footing.

February 1, 2024
February 1, 2024

An exploration of Hinduism and its honest interpretation

It’s been a while since I had been meaning to get my hands on a book by Shashi Tharoor, and when my sister asked me what she could get me from Kolkata, I immediately said I’d love to read a book by the renowned Indian author, politician, columnist, and critic.

January 19, 2024
January 19, 2024

Friday flavours and feels

There were always some guests who would drop by on Friday mornings and in those days, there were no pre-visit calls to check if it would be alright to drop by.

December 5, 2023
December 5, 2023

Love, loss, and hope in Tehran

Overnight, the saffron summer afternoons and evenings of dreamy stargazing tumble into a tale of grief, guilt, and pain.

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