Bookshelf | New books on the Shelves (August 23, 2024)

A Bengali love story set in 1920s Afghanistan, the simple mathematics behind artificial intelligence, and much more.

A Person Is a Prayer

Ammar Kalia

Penguin India

Rs.399

Exploring the emotional gap between family members when communication falls apart, this novel about the generational search for happiness travels from Kenya and India to England and is narrated over three different days.

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Shabnam

Syed Mujtaba Ali, translated by Nazes Afroz

Speaking Tiger

Rs.499

In this love story by the celebrated Bengali writer Syed Mujtaba Ali, a Bengali teacher and an Afghan woman fall headlong into love, transcending the barriers of language and culture in 1920s Afghanistan

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Spontaneous Acts

Yoko Tawada, translated by Susan Bernofsky

Dialogue Books

Rs.499

A literary researcher in Berlin struggles to get on with life. The post-lockdown world constantly overwhelms him until he meets an enigmatic stranger.

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Dalit counter-publics and the classroom

A Sharmila Rege Reader

Edited by V. Geetha & Uma Chakravarti

Routledge India

Rs.1,295

The collected essays of the feminist scholar Sharmila Rege (1964–2013) span a range of themes such as critical perspectives on women’s movements, Dalit standpoint feminism, and women’s studies vis-a-vis other disciplines.

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Governing Forests

Arpitha Kodiveri

Yoda Press

Rs.599

The environmental lawyer Arpitha Kodiveri describes how India’s forest-dwelling communities, who bear the costs of both development and conservation, are now driving creative and visionary solutions in forest law.

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Why Machines Learn

The Elegant Maths Behind Modern AI

Anil Ananthaswamy

EP Dutton

Rs.2,757

To make the most of artificial intelligence, Anil Ananthaswamy says we need to understand its limitations. The answer lies in simple 18th century mathematics.

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