Daily Star Books
BOOK REVIEW: POEM / Poetry collection that traverses the world of Tagore
The poet says that since her childhood, Tagore’s poems and music have been resounding in her heart and soul and that she murmured his lines even in her sleep
THE SHELF / 6 books that shed light on student movements in Bangladesh
One of the movements which helped accelerate the Liberation War of Bangladesh was the Mass Uprising of 1969.
BOOK REVIEW: FICTION / ‘Decibels, dollars, days: down’: An experiential novel about hearing and loss
Callahan’s novel came to her during the pandemic when she found herself waking up with a large ringing noise in her head.
BOOK REVIEW: POETRY / Speaking up for the intellectual resurgence in non-cosmopolitan Bengal
“My reader, I dip into the water just for you.” Bibhas Roy Chowdhury
REFLECTION / Using humour and Fredrik Backman’s novels to breeze through life
Backman, in his style of writing and the characters he builds, tends to approach all the complexities of humanity with a touch of distance, while still managing to maintain intimacy
EVENT REPORT / Phire Dekha: Serajul Islam Choudhury revisits his life in his autobiographical speech
The forum was held at Bangladesh Shishu Academy and was anchored by Professor Azfar Hussain.
NEWS / Arundhati Roy wins PEN Pinter Prize 2024
This award is meant to be shared with a Writer of Courage, which PEN describes as a ‘writer who is active in defence of freedom of expression, often at great risk to their own safety and liberty’
BOOK REVIEW: NONFICTION / An enigma amongst nations
In Alex Christofi’s newly published fascinating book—Cypria: A Journey to the Heart of the Mediterranean—we get a deep close-range look at one of world civilisation’s interesting hotspots that has long swayed between the cross-currents of the rise and fall of the great monotheisms.
LITERARY CURTAINS / ‘Begum’s Blunder’ shines in Wilde splendour
Begum’s Blunder is a clever adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s Lady Windermere’s Fan. The play transports the Victorian setting to the imaginary Behrampur, the heyday of the Nawabs in India. With Naila Azad Nupur’s direction, and Sadaf Saaz working her behind-the-scenes magic as the producer, the production by Kaleidoscope projects lights on the prism of Wilde’s 1892 play to find their contemporary refractions and reflections in colonial India.
INTERVIEW / Outliers take centre-stage in Shah Tazrian Ashrafi’s debut collection
It’s hard not to recall our many conversations about literature as I try to summarise Shah Tazrian Ashrafi’s debut collection of short stories. They were always short discussions, opening and closing off in spurts, as happens over text. Exclamations over a new essay collection by Zadie Smith, or a new novel by Isabel Allende.
THE SHELF / Seven audiobook adaptations to listen to over Eid break
Whether you’re a fan of classic literature, contemporary fiction, or just simply enjoy immersive audios, these audiobooks and adaptations offer a fantastic way to enjoy some of the best stories ever written
Literature or sadism: The bleak picture of trauma in ‘A Little Life’
There are few novelists as cruel as Hanya Yanagihara—and in A Little Life (Doubleday, 2015), her pen draws blood. Nine years on, the controversy of the 800-page character study of an irreparably broken protagonist is still ablaze with accusations that it sadistically exploits trauma for profit.
A look at AAPI representation in tech with Kyla Zhao of ‘Valley Verified’
This week, Kyla Zhao, the author of Valley Verified (Penguin Random House, 2024), graced us with an exclusive interview to give us insights into the changing trends in Asian American literature.
Book-to-screen adaptations to look forward to in the second half of 2024
The first half of this year has treated us with some truly amazing book-to-screen adaptations like Feud: Capote vs. The Swans, A Gentleman in Moscow, and Ripley. The second half is also unlikely to disappoint. Here are some book-to-screen adaptations to pack the rest of your year with.
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.
Celebrating the best of Bengali short fiction
Bengali literature has had a rich history of prose, beginning more or less in the early 19th century under the colonial Raj.
Understanding generational trauma through 'Feeding Ghosts'
A review of Tessa Hulls' graphic memoir, 'Feeding Ghosts' (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2024)
Exploring The Rebel’s call to revolution
Review of ‘Bidrohi Puran’ (Pendulum Books, 2024) by Arif Rahman
Speaking with Arunava Sinha about Sanya Rushdi’s ‘Hospital’: A translator extraordinaire
"...it is our responsibility to contribute to ways in which more translators can work well, be compensated fairly and find the work worthwhile enough to continue doing it"
Of language and free will
'We are truly prisoners of the mind', says Sanya Rushdi, the author-narrator of Hospital (Giramondo Publishing, 2023)
