1990 Aramganj: A Novel
Rakesh Kayasth, translated by Varsha Tiwary
Eka
Rs.499
The protagonist is Ashiq Miyan, a Muslim tailor and Ram devotee who performs incredible feats at the annual Dussehra festival. He belongs to the mohalla of Aramganj, home to high- and low-caste Hindus, and Muslims. As L.K. Advani’s Rath Yatra is announced, Ashiq finds himself caught in a deadly web of politics and communal tension.
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A Perfect Day to Be Alone
Nanae Aoyama, translated by Jesse Kirkwood
MacLehose Press
Rs.499
This astute analysis of loneliness won the Akutagawa Prize, Japan’s most prestigious literary award. It is about 21-year-old Chizu forging her identity through encounters with unsatisfactory relationships, part-time jobs, and solitude.
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The Collected Short Stories of Kazi Nazrul Islam
Edited by Syed Manzoorul Islam and Kaustav Chakraborty
Orient BlackSwan
Rs.805
Kazi Nazrul Islam, the Bengali rebel poet whose verses spell action, wrote short stories too. With 20 of Kazi Nazrul Islam’s short stories translated into English for the first time, this collection evokes the poetry, folktales, music, and the lush landscape of Bengal.
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Three Centuries of Travel Writing by Muslim Women
Edited by Daniel Majchrowicz, Sunil Sharma, Siobhan Lambert-Hurley
Zubaan
Rs.1,400
The first-hand accounts in this collection, translated from ten different languages, upend preconceived notions of intrepid travellers in the 17th to 20th century. Three editors have worked together to recover, translate, annotate, and provide historical and cultural context for how these daring women experienced the world—in their own voices.
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The New Experts: Populist Elites and Technocratic Promises in Modi’s India
Anuradha Sajjanhar
Cambridge University Press
$105
The New Experts analyses how political leaders in India strategically use modes of populist spectacle and established technocratic institutions to produce shared visions of a glorified technological and hyper-nationalist futures.
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This Land We Call Home: The Story of a Family, Caste, Conversions and Modern India
Nusrat F. Jafri
Penguin eBury Press
Rs.699
Tracing the roots of her nomadic forebears who belonged to the Bhantus of Rajasthan, the cinematographer Nusrat F. Jafri writes about a tribe that tried hard to fit into a caste society only to be disappointed, eventually choosing alternative faiths in pursuit of acceptance.
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Fiction
The World and All That It Holds
Aleksandar Hemon
Picador
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Blackouts
Justin Torres
Granta Books
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New Life
Tom Crewe
Chatto & Windus
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North Woods
Daniel Mason
Random House
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Non-fiction
Good for a Girl: A Woman Running in a Man’s World
Lauren Fleshman
Penguin Press
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Questioning Humanity: Being Human in a Posthuman Age
Thomas Osborne and Nikolas Rose
Edward Elgar Publishing
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How The World Made The West: A 4000 Year History
Josephine Quinn
Bloomsbury Publishing
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My Girls: The Power of Friendship in a Poor Neighborhood
Jasmin Sandelson
University of California Press
