Daily Star Books
OPINION / What you call your own
As an Anglophone writer in Bangladesh, I’ve frequently faced the rather inane question of why I write in English.
BOOK REVIEW: FICTION / Twistier than a jilapir pyatch
It’s a truism to say that modern life is complicated, but even a couple of decades ago, it would have been hard to predict the things we are dealing with today.
ESSAY / RRReading
Even if you are not a film enthusiast, chances are high that you have watched the 2022 Telegu blockbuster RRR. At the very least, you should have heard about it.
Book review: Nonfiction / The records of resilience
Much of the reminiscences in The Murti Boys encompass the grittiness of staving off the Pakistanis with little weaponry and a great deal of quick thinking.
News report / Eminent author, journalist Gita Mehta passes away
Mehta also directed the documentary film Dateline Bangladesh based on her time stationed in Bangladesh during the war.
News report / "Abul Mansur Ahmad had been constantly fighting for change in the society”
Describing Abul Mansur Ahmed as a multi-faceted personality, the speakers said that from a sense of responsibility to the society, he has constantly fought for the rights of citizens, freedom of speech and change in the society.
Essay / Rethinking Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay, the humanist
Despite his caste-consciousness and critical depiction of the social prejudices of colonial Bengal, he never directly opposed them; in his real life, he was an upholder of traditional Hindu patriarchy and Brahmin-dominated caste society.
BOOK REVIEW: FICTION / The occult thrills of ‘The Centre’
Rarely does a book arrive, a debut no less, that feels as inventive and accomplished as Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi’s The Centre. Her novel is built on the crossroads of interpretation and ownership, of the power of language and of those privileged enough to reclaim it.
THE SHELF / When all else fails, satirise
This week, the Daily Star Books compiles a list of satirical fiction for our readers to feast on. In sociopolitical climates rife with crackdowns and censorship, satire takes on the burden of giving a voice to matters that cannot be spoken about otherwise.
BOOK REVIEW: NONFICTION / A paean to storytelling
Following the trails of Imaginary Homelands (Penguin Books, 1992) and Step Across The Line (Modern Library, 2003), comprising essays written and lectures given by Salman Rushdie between 2003-2020, Languages of Truth is Rushdie’s third collection of nonfiction works and is as a delectable read as its predecessors if not more.
Book review: Nonfiction / When literature meets food
The author paints an engrossing picture of her experiences and memories, both influenced by food, which is true for most of the people in this world, and particularly for South Asians.
The new speculative literary magazine on the block
Veering off from stories for a bit, Fahim Anzoom Rumman’s “The Secret” was a breath of fresh air. The piece seemed to be a cross between a poem and the kind of fable your grandparents would tell you as a kid to get you to fall asleep.
Mood mirror
Whenever depression is depicted in pop culture, it is shown in some visible extreme, with blue-grey lighting, dark rooms, ashen faces peering out through rainy windows, bodies curled up in bed.
6 wonderful books to celebrate the Women in Translation month
‘Women in Translation’ is an all-inclusive, international project that aims to terminate the continual discrimination faced by non-English female authors, and gives them due recognition.
“Pettiness, Prejudice, and Pets with Panache”
I first came across Anastasia Ryan’s work through my Instagram wanderings and was instantly intrigued by the sound of her recently released novel. Not least by its title, You Should Smile More.
Remembering Melville in his bicentenary year
Melville's critics, inevitably, panned him for what he had characterised self-deprecatingly and in his frustration as his fictional "botches," although his works were rarely that.
The minority report in India
In Another India, Pratinav Anil unambiguously faults Nehruvian secularism—the very mantle championed by historians such as Mushirul Hasan for whom “the congress best represented the Muslim interests from the fifties on.”
Living a feminist killjoy life
The way we perceive the word “emotion” through the gendered lens contributes to systematic oppression because it dismisses those who fall under the umbrella of the emotional radar and it is easier to silence their voices as emotional beings because they are often, according to the patriarchal society, deemed as unstable, illogical, or disoriented.
Why grown-ups should reimmerse themselves in children's literature
Children's literature is purposefully crafted for a segment of society without political or economic clout—individuals devoid of wealth, suffrage, or command over the levers of finance and governance.
Why I learned more from reading fiction books than nonfiction
It is deeply saddening that this discouragement to read fiction is coming at a time when we as a population are suffering from a crisis in empathy.
Applications for the next session of Write Beyond Borders are now open
The lineup of mentors includes a range of writers from South Asia, currently based in and publishing from all over the globe.
