DS Books
INTERVIEW / The stories we want to tell: In conversation with Gemini Wahhaj
In Gemini Wahhaj’s debut novel, The Children of This Madness (7.13 Books, 2023), the follow the lives of engineering professor Nasir Uddin and his daughter Beena, an aspiring PhD candidate living in the US.
BOOK REVIEW: NONFICTION / A peripatetic poet’s pleasing musings
The title of this book suggests that it is based in Bengal but it really meanders deftly across time and space, more often than not in “mazy motion”.
BOOK REVIEW: FICTION / A mesmerising journey of life’s twists and turn
The Covenant of Water by physician and author Abraham Verghese tells the story of three generations of an Orthodox Saint Thomas Christian family in Kerala. Through suffering and loss, triumphs and victories, the importance of familial ties is examined and supported. In the Kerala of the 1940s, blood ties were sacred, but “family” also meant helpers who worked for you. Members of the three-generational family seem to be under a curse which causes its members to drown in water. The mystical power of water in our lives is explored with precision and sensitivity in the novel.
BOOK REVIEW: FICTION / Meditations on sanity in ‘Hospital’
Though on its surface Sanya Rushdi’s Hospital, translated into English by Arunava Sinha and recently longlisted for the 2024 Stella Prize, looks to be a breezy, short read—it is anything but. With her rather flattened, sparse prose, Rushdi has managed to write an enduring piece of autofiction, a compelling account of psychosis that neither sensationalises nor withers away any sentimentality from the struggles of mental health.
BOOK REVIEW: FICTION / ‘Shubeik Lubeik’, wishes, and the vulnerability of human beings
In Deena Mohamed’s Shubeik Lubeik (originally published in 2015 and translated in 2023 by Mohamed herself), wishes have not only drastically altered the fabric of daily life in Egypt, but the world at large.
BOOK REVIEW: FICTION / A list of life lessons
Set in 1979, this is a story of monsters—the ones who prey on the vulnerable, the ones that exploit our weaknesses, and the ones that we elevate to positions of power.
ESSAY / The promises and pitfalls of decolonial thinking
The craze that once prevailed in academia over postcolonialism no longer seems to hover around there anymore.
BOOK REVIEW: FICTION / A twisted tale of deception
Reading this book was uncomfortable, like a car crash waiting to happen, it was hard to read and even harder to put down.
REFLECTIONS / The stories that nonfictions tell
Dense textbooks with words more twisted than the shapes my lips could contort themselves into—for the longest time, my perception of non-fiction didn’t deviate from this singular image.
A fixed strand of identity: in conversation with Amal Awad
As a Palestinian-Australian, you’ve stressed the importance of telling stories about everyday Palestinians. Why is it important to tell such stories?
The first semester is your shitty first draft
Like many veterans, I joined a creative writing MFA program because I wanted to evolve as a writer.
Jhumpa Lahiri’s Italian renovations
Jhumpa Lahiri has always been the rare author whose prowess in the art of the short-story far surpassed her novelistic talents.
Ludic space for Tagore’s fictive children
An interesting concern in contemporary children’s literature criticism is the discussion of power. Do the fictive children in children’s books, conceived and delivered by the adult author, have the ability to exercise their will and possess a voice?
Celebrating Rokeya
Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain (1880–1932) was exceptional in many different ways. Born on December 9, 1880, in a sleepy village in Rangpur, undivided Bengal, she died on the same day, 52 years later,
Sultana’s Dream and the issue with feminist utopias
“They should not do anything, excuse me; they are fit for nothing.”
Growing up with Mark Twain
On a chilly winter morning of November 2010, I came across a story that would stamp my childhood permanently. It was the winter vacation and the school finals were just over. While playing board games at one of my friend’s, I found quite a picturesque book filled with illustrations and art. It was titled, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876).
Keep your secrets close and your tech support closer
Addison Square is one of those hidden enclaves where well-heeled Londoners tuck themselves away to create bubbles of “civilised life” from which they can exclude the riffraff surrounding them in the mega-city they call home.
Nobody writes like Arundhati Roy
When a dear friend recommended The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy, it took me one page to grow up.
Despair and death in ‘Truth or Dare’
Bangladeshi literature in English has had a considerably late start compared to its South Asian counterparts in India and Pakistan. A few exceptions aside, a consistency came to be seen only by the early 2010s.
