Book Reviews

Revisiting forgotten babyhood days with ‘Babuibela’

Every emotion associated with pregnancy and childbirth is amplified...
New online journal ‘Kitchen Sink’ promises an accessible platform for poets

About a month ago, a few friends sent me invites to follow the...
The book that I would like to read

Today I would like to talk about a book that I have been waiting to...

Tahmima Anam’s ‘The Startup Wife’ arrives at Baatighar

Tahmima Anam’s fourth and latest novel, The Startup Wife (Penguin...
Is Netflix’s ‘Ray’ worth the watch?

Netflix’s latest anthology series, Ray, is based on four short...
Who is Ayad Akhtar?

When I began reading Homeland Elegies (Little, Brown and Company,...

Colm Tóibín takes Henry James for a ride

In a detour from all the genres and topics that we review on this...
Ann Patchett’s ‘The Dutch House’: On branches of memories and pain

Even though we moved out of our grandmother’s house in Dhaka more...
A tribute to my father and his bookshelf

Last week, we marked the 10th year of my father’s death, on June...

Unpacking Bangladesh’s obsession with Bollywood

Mrittika Anan Rahman (MAR): What does it say about Bollywood that...
Feminism, activism, and literature: The legacy of Sufia Kamal

Sufia Kamal’s is a name revered in nearly every household in the...
Sensing Bangladesh through art and poetry

In their latest offering, Sensing Bangladesh – A Children’s...

‘The Moment of Lift’: Melinda Gates and the developing world’s untapped female-fuel

Female empowerment is often seen as a luxury reserved for...
Books to read if you miss travelling this summer

I know it’s hard when you want to travel, but life, owing in no...
Of the peasants’ quest for a state and Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman

Afsan Chowdhury’s Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and Bangladesh: The Quest...

For lovers of traveling and history

Shamsul Alam’s From Love Lane to the World: Tales of Travel &...
IFIC Kali O Kolom Young Writers Award 2020 winners announced

Sponsored by IFIC Bank, this year’s Kali O Kolom Torun Kabi O...
Soumitra Chatterjee: The one man behind the many

It is impossible to ascribe any one particular character to...

Forgiveness, growth, and second chances in Sarah Hogle’s ‘Twice Shy’

Reading Sarah Hogle’s Twice Shy (GP Putnam’s Sons, 2021) is like...
My learning from Anne Frank as she turns 92

Not all books fulfil the purpose of exploring metaphors or offering...
Tahmima Anam launches and discusses ‘The Startup Wife’ at Hay Festival

On June 3, 2021, Bangladeshi-born British writer Tahmima Anam...

A truly ‘Invincible’ comic book series

While DC and Marvel, the two big dogs of the comic book industry,...
Relationships lost and found in debut novel ‘Punyaha’.

In the middle of nowhere, among the wide expanse of paddy fields...
A handbook for navigating the social media age in your profession

While the world might seem like a place only made for extroverts,...

‘Saogat’ magazine and the gift of critical thought

In the 18th and 19th centuries, Bengal was rife with the struggle for identity and socio-political upheaval, particularly in the Bengali Muslim communities.
Into the World of Bengali Literature with Soumitra

Though both books and films transport us into the world of story-telling, shaping up our perspectives on life, most readers argue that the true essence of a literary work can never be captured in adaptation.
The Trauma of Identity

George Takei’s visceral and heart-wrenching graphic memoir, They Called Us Enemy (2019), dives deep into the cold, dark heart of America’s perceived multiculturalism.
In ‘Pachinko’, a Record of Forgotten Lives

Even in the most extraordinary of political times, someone must tend to the crops. Someone must weave clothes for the winter.
‘Shuggie Bain’ wins the 2020 Booker prize

Shuggie Bain (Grove Press, 2020) is the story of a young boy living in “working-class” Glasgow in the 1980s.
On Children’s Literature in Bangladesh: Then and Now

For World Children’s Day on Friday, November 20, Daily Star Books speaks to contemporary and veteran authors, publishers, and readers of children’s literature written in Bangladesh.
5 NEW NON-FICTION RELEASES TO LOOK OUT FOR THIS MONTH

Autumn means a harvest of new books the world over. While novels and short stories continue to sweep through shelves, this past month
Money Still Makes the World Go Round

Jacob Goldstein, author of Money: The True Story of a Made-Up Thing (Hachette Books, 2020), and the co-host of the radio podcast,
Shada Beralera: Nitu and the spectre of a landscape

Rashida Sultana’s first novel entitled Shada Beralera (White Cats) comes in a slim package of 80 pages and is coloured by a passive discontent.
Himu ki mahapurush?

Himu has none of the intelligence or powers of deduction of Misir Ali. Himu says the wrong thing at the wrong time. He helps people, but only after causing undue chaos and misery.