nonfiction review

BOOK REVIEW: NONFICTION / ‘Jodi Lokkho Thake Otut’: Self-help done right

Review of ‘Jodi Lokkho Thake Otut: Shafolyer Khola Koushol’ (Anyaprokash, 2025) by Asif Iqbal

BOOK REVIEW: NONFICTION / Imagining Africa in Bengali fiction and verse

Mowtushi Mahruba’s Africa in the Bengali Imagination: from Calcutta to Kampala, 1928-73 is a distinctive and pioneering work on the way the continent led to creative writing in English as well as Bengali over the decades

BOOK REVIEW: NONFICTION / Reading Baitullah Quaderee: A critic’s view of a poetic decade

When I picked up Baitullah Quaderee’s 'Bangladesher Shater Dashaker Kabita', it wasn’t particularly out of scholarly curiosity. The book is, by design, a doctoral thesis—its structure conventional, its chapters arranged by academic demand—but what caught my interest was not the format, nor even the topic. It was the author himself. 

BOOK REVIEW: NONFICTION / Transnational identity: Negotiating the choices

Review of ‘Reframing My Worth: Memoir of a Bangladeshi-Canadian Woman’ by Habiba Zaman (FriesenPress, 2024)

BOOK REVIEW: NONFICTION / Stitching fragments of a city lost in time

In the contested notion of creating a ‘nation,’ few ideas provoke as much ire among the everyday citizens of a bordered entity as the concept of a space—one that carries with it the weight of instilling an identity.

BOOK REVIEW: NONFICTION / ‘Bangladesh: A Legacy of Blood’ is a flawed but essential critique of the founding fathers of our nation

Review of ‘Bangladesh: A Legacy of Blood’ (Hodder and Stoughton, 1986) by Anthony Mascarenhas

BOOK REVIEW: NONFICTION / Confronting cultural silence on IPV in Bangladeshi communities

Proverbs, short and profound, often sum up wisdom passed down through generations. Bangla, one of the world’s most spoken languages, is rich with such gems. One such saying in the language—”manush ki bolbe?”—is central to Intimacies of Violence, a debut book by Dr Nadine Shaanta Murshid, an associate professor at the University at Buffalo.

BOOK REVIEW: NONFICTION / Taking folk melodies of Bangladesh to the world

Folk Melody of Bangladesh: An Anthology of Bangladesh Folk Music in Standard Notation is a music anthology that compiles 204 carefully chosen folk songs of Bangladesh that date from the 16th century.

July 27, 2025
July 27, 2025

‘Jodi Lokkho Thake Otut’: Self-help done right

Review of ‘Jodi Lokkho Thake Otut: Shafolyer Khola Koushol’ (Anyaprokash, 2025) by Asif Iqbal

July 10, 2025
July 10, 2025

Imagining Africa in Bengali fiction and verse

Mowtushi Mahruba’s Africa in the Bengali Imagination: from Calcutta to Kampala, 1928-73 is a distinctive and pioneering work on the way the continent led to creative writing in English as well as Bengali over the decades

June 27, 2025
June 27, 2025

Reading Baitullah Quaderee: A critic’s view of a poetic decade

When I picked up Baitullah Quaderee’s 'Bangladesher Shater Dashaker Kabita', it wasn’t particularly out of scholarly curiosity. The book is, by design, a doctoral thesis—its structure conventional, its chapters arranged by academic demand—but what caught my interest was not the format, nor even the topic. It was the author himself. 

April 27, 2025
April 27, 2025

Transnational identity: Negotiating the choices

Review of ‘Reframing My Worth: Memoir of a Bangladeshi-Canadian Woman’ by Habiba Zaman (FriesenPress, 2024)

April 10, 2025
April 10, 2025

Stitching fragments of a city lost in time

In the contested notion of creating a ‘nation,’ few ideas provoke as much ire among the everyday citizens of a bordered entity as the concept of a space—one that carries with it the weight of instilling an identity.

December 31, 2024
December 31, 2024

‘Bangladesh: A Legacy of Blood’ is a flawed but essential critique of the founding fathers of our nation

Review of ‘Bangladesh: A Legacy of Blood’ (Hodder and Stoughton, 1986) by Anthony Mascarenhas

December 27, 2024
December 27, 2024

The role of women’s agency in transforming Bangladesh from a basket case into a beacon of progress

Review of ‘Renegotiating Patriarchy’ (LSE Press, 2024) by Naila Kabeer

December 13, 2024
December 13, 2024

Confronting cultural silence on IPV in Bangladeshi communities

Proverbs, short and profound, often sum up wisdom passed down through generations. Bangla, one of the world’s most spoken languages, is rich with such gems. One such saying in the language—”manush ki bolbe?”—is central to Intimacies of Violence, a debut book by Dr Nadine Shaanta Murshid, an associate professor at the University at Buffalo.

November 14, 2024
November 14, 2024

Taking folk melodies of Bangladesh to the world

Folk Melody of Bangladesh: An Anthology of Bangladesh Folk Music in Standard Notation is a music anthology that compiles 204 carefully chosen folk songs of Bangladesh that date from the 16th century.

November 2, 2024
November 2, 2024

Unravelling Yuval Noah Harari’s ‘Nexus’

Review of ‘Nexus’ (Random House, 2024)