Review: Comic hero Agent Vinod is kick-ass

0

Tweet

New Delhi: Four men meet under the cover of anonymity at a pub perched on top of a hill at Jungfrau, in the Bernese Alps, accessible only by a malfunctioning cable car. They order their drinks (single malt, on the rocks, gin and tonic, vodka, neat and lager) and decide on not revealing their real identities.

The story of the graphic novel Agent Vinod - The Jungfrau Encounter lurches forward in a series of flashbacks that includes sexual fetishes, intrigue, action, cheesy one-liners and some severe violence.

Read Guenter Grass' poem 'What Must Be Said'

1

Tweet

Israel has declared Guenter Grass persona non grata, deepening a spat with the Nobel-winning author over a poem that deeply criticises the Jewish state and suggests it is as much a danger as Iran.

The dispute with Grass, who only late in life admitted to a Nazi past, has drawn new attention to strains in Germany's complicated relationship with the Jewish state - and also focused unwelcome light on Israel's own secretive nuclear program.

Full list: Aleph Book's titles to be released this year

0

Tweet

Aleph Book Company has announced its first list of titles to be released beginning 9 April 2012. The twenty-five books of fiction and non-fiction on the company's launch list will be published across five seasons, and will comprise original works by established authors as well as outstanding new voices.

The first books to be published will be Between Clay and Dust by Musharraf Ali Farooqi, Em and The Big Hoom by Jerry Pinto, and The Taliban Cricket Club by Timeri N Murari.

'Flame': Shahnaz Husain's daughter pens biography

0

Tweet

Popular beauty expert Shahnaz Husain's daughter, Nelofar Currimbhoy, has penned 'Flame', a biography of her mother.

Pak author Farooqi strikes the 'write' chord

0

Tweet

Islamabad: While the world continues to raise a toast to contemporary Pakistani authors, the latest author to enter the literary marathon is a genius of sorts who translates Urdu tomes and works on his own tales of fiction with equal ease.

Musharraf Ali Farooqi caught everyone's attention with translations of Urdu classics "The Adventures of Amir Hamza" and the first book of a projected 24-volume magical fantasy epic, "Hoshruba".

Sri Aurobindo was a spiritual leader, not an avatar: Peter Heehs

0

Tweet

American historian Peter Heehs, whose book 'The Lives of Sri Aurobindo' has sparked protests and demands for him to leave India, says powerful people are pressurizing the government not to renew his visa. Heehs also said democracies should not ban books and his book on Sri Aurobindo is a scholarly biography which is an attempt to examine Aurobindo as a spiritual leader and not as an avatar of god. He was speaking to CNN-IBN Deputy Editor Sagarika Ghose.

'Tea for Two...' very well executed chick-lit

0

Tweet

I think I have had my share of chick-lit reading for this year. I am glad that it ended with, "Tea for Two and a Piece of Cake" by Preeti Shenoy. Preeti Shenoy writes with urgency - almost like she has to catch the next bus and will miss it, but it is that urgency that gives the book its much needed tone and pace.

The plot is about starting again. Nisha’s life is not the perfect life one would want. She is plump (and well there is more than one reference to that in the book), plain-looking and but obviously single. She has had her heart broken once by being in an eight-year old relationship with the suave and charming Samir Sharma and being dumped at the altar. Enters a younger man Akash and the promise to start all over, knowing that it could or could not work out. Chances need to be taken and this time Nisha would have to take them all over again, though being guarded and apprehensive. The question is: Will she or won’t she?

FTN: Are historians losing their freedom of expression?

0

Tweet

Once again a book has been banned. This time the author is American historian Peter Heehs for his book 'The lives Of Sri Aurobindo'.

Taking poetry to India's young readers

0

Tweet

New Delhi: Prose has for long edged poetry to the margins of contemporary Indian literature. It is only natural that the new reader is not familiar with the late Kamala Das or her bold feminist oeuvre of poetry and short story that gave her cult status in India like Sylvia Plath in the West.

Now a new series to promote contemporary Indian poetry by publisher Harper Collins-India has begun with a celebration of the Kerala-born bilingual poetess with a "small documentary" on her life and a panel discussion about her relevance on her birthday March 31.

Indo-US relationship drifting apart, says a book

0

Tweet

New Delhi: India should have sent its troops back to Sri Lanka to kill or capture Prabhakaran and the LTTE leadership after the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, says a new book by a former US diplomat.

Rajiv Gandhi's killing was an attack on India's status as a regional power. Forcibly bringing Prabhakaran to India to face trial would have sent a clear message to the region, and the world, that India would defend its political leaders from attack, defend its political system from intimidation and defend its primacy in South Asia against any challengers, the author says.