Fiction

Lydia Davis wins Man Booker International fiction prize

London: American short story writer Lydia Davis won the fifth Man Booker International Prize for fiction on Wednesday for a body of work that includes some of the briefest tales ever published.

Davis, a professor of creative writing at the University of Albany, is best known for work that Observer critic William Skidelsky once said "redefines the meaning of brevity".

She is also an accomplished translator whose English versions of Marcel Proust's "Du Cote de Chez Swann" (Swann's Way) and Gustave Flaubert's "Madame Bovary" helped earn her a Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters in France.

Davis said it was Proust's monumental work and famously long sentences that helped inspire her succinct writing style....more    

CAG writing fiction, throwing up mystical numbers: Tewari

New Delhi: A day before CAG Vinod Rai demits office, Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari on Monday accused him of "fiction writing" on some figures of alleged corruption, saying that the country's top auditor had done the greatest disservice to the nation by tossing "mystical numbers". Tewari, who delivered a keynote address after launch of an opinion poll conducted with samples across India at Observer Research Foundation (ORF) in...  

Ten Things I've Learnt about Love is almost magical

It was the title's unusual quality that drew me to it. I wanted to then read it and find out more. What was the book about? Why this title? I was guessing that it would be a love story for sure, however I did not for once think it was a love story of a father and his daughter. Of the relationship they share and what they don't and how...  

It's hard not to love Horowitz's book On Looking

We think we see all the time. We think we observe. We also think we possibly know the world around us the way we are meant to. We see what we expect to most of the time. Maybe our mind conditions itself to show us only those things which we want to and the ones that we do not want to, well, they just get hidden. It could happen anywhere....  

Legacy is a book that forces you to introspect

The relationship between a parent and a child cannot be explained in words. It is much more than that. A parent is a child's first friend, teacher, guide and motivator. At times, we think that the upbringing of children of rich and successful people is far different from that of a common man's child. Well, Legacy by Sudha Menon successfully breaks this myth, at least for me, it did. I...  

The Homing Pigeons is a riveting, easy read

I have been reading a lot of debut authors lately. Some of them are good and most of them are not so good. Not trying to discourage anyone here but after reading some of the books, I felt that writing a book has become a fad more than a passion these days. Still, whenever I pick up a book by a debut author, I keep my prejudices and expectations aside...  

Essence of every emotion is well captured The Interestings

It is never easy to write about the world the way it is. To talk of love and friendships and everything that takes place in between is never something that can be done without wrenching the way you feel about them. I have always admired writers who can manage this and continue to do so, because it takes a lot out of the writer to dig in and generate stories...  

Following Fish reads simply, speaks of different things

I believe in discovering books on my own. I do not believe in recommendations because I am scared that most people do not know what I love to read or do not care to ask. It is a fact. Most people just put a book in your hands and tell you, "You must read this." There is nothing more to that interaction. And yet there are times when I am...  

'Just Send Me Word' is a moving love story

To live a life away from the one that you love is not easy at all. It almost leaves me breathless thinking about it. I mean just the thought of it is enough for me to send out a prayer for it to never happen to two people who love each other deeply. And while I type this, I am thinking of a wondrous book I finished reading this month....  

One should not miss reading Crossing to Safety

I had heard a lot about "Crossing to Safety" from a lot of people online. It is one of the American Classics that demand a read and once you have read it, you will be ever thankful. Or so I had heard from everyone who had read the book and could not stop talking about it. I had to read it. I tried reading it initially and then gave it...  

Baker's Daughter reflects quiet power of narration

A lot of books have been written about the Second World War by now. More so from the perspective of the Holocaust and nothing else. At times, you also think that you have read it all. After all, how different can one story be from the other? I have always thought that or rather used to. To read enough all the time about a particular incident does not make you...  

By Blood, a literary fiction read like no other

There are books that you have been wanting to read since a very long time but never got around to. They are just laying there on your shelf, waiting silently and more so patiently, so you can get to them. "By Blood" by Ellen Ullman was one of those books for me that just lay there for the longest time. I did not pick it up and even if I...  

The Childhood of Jesus is allegorical in nature

JM Coetzee's books are not easy to read. His writing is not easy to comprehend either at times. It takes a while for the reader to figure where he is going with the plot, but once the reader gets the hang of it, it is a cakewalk from thereon. Every time I pick up a Coetzee, I am a little apprehensive of how is it going to turn out. I...  

Life After Life, a read that you must gift yourself

I had never read anything by Kate Atkinson before this one. I had heard a lot about her, but of course and was quite intrigued by the titles of her earlier books. At the same time, every time I would try reading an excerpt from any of her books online, I could not connect with them. I guess maybe the timing wasn't right. Maybe there are times when some books...  

Bitter Almonds is written with great tenderness

It is so important to be educated. Is it not? So much so that we - the ones who are educated almost take it for granted. A privilege of sorts. We can never imagine not being literate. To us, that is the core of everything, which as I said often gets overlooked for whatever reason. I tried teaching someone once a long time ago, taught him to read a little...  

Beyond Human Nature can leave the reader astounded

Why do people from one culture think and see things differently from another? Why do they almost feel and also emote differently in some situations? There are so many instances when people from a different race or culture act and think differently and yet while most of us question the differences, there are times when thoughts regarding those do not cross our mind. The differences also stem from the nurture...  

A Visit from the Goon Squad is a fascinating book

When you finish reading a book of a stature such as "A Visit from the Goon Squad" by Jennifer Egan, you sit down, breathe and keep breathing, till the breath paces itself out and you aren't gasping anymore. The effect of books has to be this way. It has to have the maddening reaction in a reader - the gasping, the constant thinking about the characters and more so how...  

Blood Red Sari will grip you from the very first page

Whenever I see a book by Ashok Banker, I wonder how he manages to work on so many books at the same time. When I first got to know about Blood Red Sari, I had two latest releases by Ashok Banker on my shelf. From mythology to popular fiction, he is just everywhere and hitting it hard. Blood Red Sari came in with an interesting blurb and the publishers were...  

Beaten by Bhagath unleashes facts about the publishing world

I believe that behind picking up a book there is a story. A story that establishes a ground on which the book gets evaluated eventually! The review request for Beaten By Bhagat came in through a friend and when I saw the blurb of the book, what intrigued me was that it was related to books, publishing and struggle of an author, it looked rather interesting. Without any pre-conceived notions,...  

Reading Mohsin Hamid; Slumdog Millionaire meets The White Tiger?

Mohsin Hamid is a gifted writer and a wonderful story-teller, so it is totally to his credit that his latest novel "How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia" is gripping. In fact, it left me wanting to finish the book, and I did so in one sitting or two. And that's despite the fact that it's not his best work, by far. Hamid is undoubtedly one of the leading...