In "Taxi Wallah", Numair Atif Chowdhury takes us, once more, through the cartography of a homeland
The version of Bangladesh we received in Babu Bangladesh (2019) was astonishing.
Abdulrazak Gurnahs 'Afterlives': The repercussions of colonialism, unveiled
Abdulrazak Gurnah, this year’s Nobel laureate in literature, seems to come as an admirable choice compared to the Nobel Prize’s controversial recent history.
The need to be fierce: In "Sweetness", Toni Morrison allows a mother to explain her actions
Anyone familiar with Toni Morrison’s work would know about the gutting picture of slavery and racism that she painted with her stories.
Shelley Parker-Chan’s 'She Who Became The Sun': A song of identity and fate
Identity is mercurial: it shifts and morphs into a new being at the change of a breeze. That change is glacial, and often happens on its own volition; but one can also grasp a new identity, hold it...
Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari’s ‘Mapping Love’: A roller coaster ride of love, loss, and longing
Oorja, as her name suggests, is a bright young girl who is the main protagonist of the story. The novel begins with her travelling back to India after her mother’s demise. She reaches home only to...
A much-needed Bangla text on the history of Sufism
Sufibad O Sufider Shorup Shondhaney (‘In search of the nature of Sufism and Sufis’), written by Syed Rezaul Karim and published in 2020 by Bangla Academy, is a welcome addition to the meager...
BOOKCENTRIC READING CHALLENGE: Readers review nautical books
From August 2021, Daily Star Books was excited to have joined Bookcentric’s monthly reading challenge, which invites readers to read and review books following each month’s designated theme. Under...
In ‘Toward Happy Civilization’, a portrait of desperation
Typical of any Samanta Schweblin story from her International Booker-longlisted collection, Mouthful of Birds (OneWorld, 2019), a sense of anxiety is strongly perceptible here, especially through...
Taran Khan maps Kabul through memory in 'Shadow City'
In Shadow City: A Woman Walks Kabul (Vintage Books, 2019), Khan delineates a personal map of Kabul, taking the reader through the “shadow city” that can be found in its still-standing monuments,...
Around the world with Tilmund and the travel bug
Samai Haider’s Tilmund’s Travel Tales (Guba Books, 2020) is a story about a little boy named Tilmund who has a great wish to follow in his grandfather’s footsteps and travel the world.