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,...

BANGABANDHU AND BANGLADESH: Correcting Contrives and Cunning Corridors

Lamartine — that mediocre poet but cunning politician in France during the revolutions of 1848 — once remarked that history is a trick that we, the living, play upon the dead.
Dreams & Shadows: Perspectives on Multifarious Issues

“When white people commit acts of terrorism, we term them mentally ill. When governments commit acts of war and terrorism, we call it Foreign Policy. When a Muslim commits an act of terror, we call it terrorism.
Patna Blues: Travails of a Minority Community

An enjoyable read, Abdullah Khan's debut novel, Patna Blues is a thought-provoking and moving work as well. It is a book mostly
History of Bangladesh: Early Bengal in Regional Perspectives- Vol. I and II

History of Bangladesh: Early Bengal in Regional Perspectives (up to c. 1200 CE)- Vol. I & II, edited by renowned historians of ancient
CHINA RULING THE WAVES?

Lieutenant General Mohammad Aminul Karim is no stranger to the sea. His latest book, Geopolitics of the South China Sea in the Coming Decades, continues a streak explaining why we must give ocean-based rivalry more currency. Yet again he applies the discipline of his military training to the International Relations discipline, leaving readers, as every scholarly book should, both inquisitive and enlightened.
Sustainable English language teacher development at scale: Lessons from Bangladesh

Externally-funded English language projects of different stripes are an integral part of Bangladeshi education. These projects come
The Boat People: Safety and its Downsides

In the face of dehumanizing discrimination, insurgency is important, but not when it deviates towards inhumanity from humanity,
Ottegsahon: Caress Of The Muse

The adage goes that almost every Bengali is born with poetry in his/her heart. Note the word - almost! There exists, blissfully, exceptions to this byword. Happily,
Kaiser Haq Presents Shaheed Quaderi to the Anglophone Readers

Professor Kaiser Haq is not only Bangladesh's finest English language poets but one of the country's best translators as well. He translated Shamsur Rahman as early as 1985, when he was in his mid-thirties.
THE OVER TAKERS: STORIES TO MULL OVER

I was scratching my head as I completed reading the first story in Wasi Ahmed's anthology of short stories entitled The Over Takers. I was scratching my head when I had finished the eleventh tale, also the last in the engrossing volume.