I have two adorable pugs, but that is not why I bought this book . The story about a little stray dog latching on to a runner during a gruelling 155-mile ultra marathon run in the Gobi Desert piqued my curiosity. The fact that she matched stride for stride with

It must be fun being an author with a vivid imagination … To make up characters and give them characteristics, to decide their quirks and idiosyncrasies. To walk the reader into your imagined locations, where they unquestioningly follow….up the mountain or down by the sea. This book, narrated in the

Ever swallowed a bitter pill that lodged itself in the throat, melting into a sour fluid with every agitated swallow? Well, this book is one such pill. In its very existence lies the truth about how terrifying life can be. Every page that gathers to become a chapter, holds within

Hajime and Shimamoto are both only children in their families. They are drawn to each other for that and many other reasons. The hours they spend together listening to records and discussing books, forges a special bond between them. Though the families move apart, they both carry each others memory

My connection with Urdu poetry is mostly limited to my memories of my father. He could remember and recite the most appropriate ‘sher’ at a party and regale fellow officers for hours. As I grew older, the beauty of the world enclosed within two lines, never ceased to amaze me

This book is a very unsettling one. It moves between a triad of three different story lines as does the trapped reader, seeking some relief for young Ritwik, the protagonist of the novel, who is struggling to escape from memories of an ugly childhood and the relentless onslaught of his

This is an easy read as most of Chitra’s novels are. In following the lives of three generations of Bengali women one realises quite clearly just how one mistake can alter the course of one’s life…quite often for the worse.. True to Divakaruni style there are descriptions of food that

At 816 pages, this Man Booker Prize finalist is a book that can put its tentacles around you and not let you go till you turn the last page. It is like an ache that you are constantly aware of but can do little about relieving it. It is utterly

I do judge a book by its cover sometimes… As covers go, this is an exotic one, the elaborate hairdo and ornaments, the delicate profile… I found myself going back to it over and over after reading certain incidents in the book, could you have done that? I asked the