historical fiction
BOOK REVIEW: FICTION / Mermaids are real: A story of the Haenyeo
Dear readers. I want you to do something with me. Take three long breaths—as deep as you can. Now hold it for two minutes! How long did you hold? I only survived one minute and 23 seconds. And I’m used to spending time in the water.
INTERVIEW / Uncovering history through storytelling
In conversation with Reem Bassiouney on the Sheikh Zayed Book Award, 'Al Halwani', and bridging the cultural gap
BOOK REVIEW: FICTION / Love, loss, and hope in Tehran
Overnight, the saffron summer afternoons and evenings of dreamy stargazing tumble into a tale of grief, guilt, and pain.
Book Review: Fiction / In search of lost eden
From the beginning we see Benjamin Honey, the patriarch of the island, longing to return to his past, in a garden, the Eden of his childhood where he reminisces about being with a woman who might or might not have been her mother.
THE SHELF / 5 books for readers with an appetite
The Hundred Foot Journey is the story of an immigrant Indian family who sets up a restaurant right in front of a famous French relais and the feud it ensues.
Padmavat: Under the lens of history, politics, and literature
Padmavat, a tale of a mythical queen featuring love, honour, and sacrifice, has captured the imagination of readers and audiences for centuries.
Language can be the ultimate colonial weapon
Despite these heavy themes, Babel remains inherently readable. It is quick to attract the reader’s attention and then hold it captive, making it a very difficult book to put down.
A legacy of women's freedom in art
Schwartz’s narrator speaks in the choral “we”, and like a daisy chain, they connect all these women’s shared yet individual experiences of feeling closed in, being violated, feeling misunderstood by society, until they all shed their names and managed to “escap[e] the century”.
Rushdie, and the victory of words
The story begins with an unnamed battle where all men of the tiny principality of Kampili die. Their wives commit mass suicide by lighting a massive bonfire on the coast of the river Pampa and immolating themselves in the pyre.
Mermaids are real: A story of the Haenyeo
Dear readers. I want you to do something with me. Take three long breaths—as deep as you can. Now hold it for two minutes! How long did you hold? I only survived one minute and 23 seconds. And I’m used to spending time in the water.
Uncovering history through storytelling
In conversation with Reem Bassiouney on the Sheikh Zayed Book Award, 'Al Halwani', and bridging the cultural gap
Love, loss, and hope in Tehran
Overnight, the saffron summer afternoons and evenings of dreamy stargazing tumble into a tale of grief, guilt, and pain.
In search of lost eden
From the beginning we see Benjamin Honey, the patriarch of the island, longing to return to his past, in a garden, the Eden of his childhood where he reminisces about being with a woman who might or might not have been her mother.
5 books for readers with an appetite
The Hundred Foot Journey is the story of an immigrant Indian family who sets up a restaurant right in front of a famous French relais and the feud it ensues.
Padmavat: Under the lens of history, politics, and literature
Padmavat, a tale of a mythical queen featuring love, honour, and sacrifice, has captured the imagination of readers and audiences for centuries.
Language can be the ultimate colonial weapon
Despite these heavy themes, Babel remains inherently readable. It is quick to attract the reader’s attention and then hold it captive, making it a very difficult book to put down.
A legacy of women's freedom in art
Schwartz’s narrator speaks in the choral “we”, and like a daisy chain, they connect all these women’s shared yet individual experiences of feeling closed in, being violated, feeling misunderstood by society, until they all shed their names and managed to “escap[e] the century”.
Rushdie, and the victory of words
The story begins with an unnamed battle where all men of the tiny principality of Kampili die. Their wives commit mass suicide by lighting a massive bonfire on the coast of the river Pampa and immolating themselves in the pyre.
8 new books to buy at Boi Mela this week
Historical fiction, romance, essays, and travelogues.