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...
The legacy of blood
Henry Kissinger is infamous in Bangladesh for allegedly terming the newly-independent country a “bottomless basket”, but this statement appears to be the least of his crimes against the people of...
The universality of solitude and good books in Jhumpa Lahiri's 'Whereabouts'
Whereabouts (Penguin India, 2021) is Jhumpa Lahiri’s third novel, published originally as Dove mi trovo (2018) in Italian and translated to English by the author herself, as she did with her work...
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.
‘Rabindranath Gave It a Miss’... for good reason
Mohammad Nazim Uddin’s fictional offering ultimately hovers somewhere between pulp fiction and feminist commentary, but it fails to satisfy readers on either count.
Won-Pyung Sohn’s ‘Almond’: A story of loveable monsters
Won-Pyung Sohn’s Almond (HarperVia, 2021), translated to English by Sandy Josun Lee, is a mesmerizing novel that captures the heart of a reader indelibly. Fifteen-year-old Yunjae cannot feel...
Why I still love Roald Dahl’s ‘Matilda’ today
Over the years, Dahl’s work in children’s literature has amassed quite the legacy in pop culture, with actor-director Danny DeVito’s silver screen adaptation of Matilda only adding to the novel’s...