New books on the shelves

A century’s worth of Bengali stories in translation, a study of a pioneering Indian sculptor, and many more.

Published : Apr 18, 2024 11:00 IST - 2 MINS READ

The Penguin Book of Bengali Short Stories

Edited by Arunava Sinha

‎Penguin Classics

Rs.1,250

This anthology collects a century’s worth of Bengali fiction, some in translation for the first time. The stories cover a gamut of styles and a range of issues like the dilemmas of the middle class, patriarchy, famine and the Bangladesh Liberation War.

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The Solitude of a Shadow

Devibharathi, translated N. Kalyan Raman

Harper Perennial

Rs.399

Devibharathi is a widely read contemporary Tamil writer. The Solitude of a Shadow is the translation of his first novel, Nizhalin Thanimai. It is a minutely observed narrative about the overlapping hierarchies of caste, wealth, and power that the nameless protagonist finds himself grappling with.

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The Mine

Arnab Ray

Hachette India

Rs.499

With a cover befitting the penny dreadfuls of yore, this novel is about a secret mine in the deserts of Rajasthan that was an ancient place of worship. As the miners are traumatised by unknown fears here, five experts investigate the strange occurrences.

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Code Dependent: Living in the Shadow of AI

Madhumita Murgia

Picador India

Rs. 699

Through the voices of ordinary people far removed from Silicon Valley, this book explores the impact of powerful, flawed, and often exploitative technologies on society at large and asks the question: Can AI strip away our collective and individual sense of agency?

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Corruption Plots: Stories, Ethics, and Publics of the Late Capitalist City

Malini Ranganathan, David L Pike, Sapana Doshi

Yoda Press

Rs. 699

Drawing on ethnography in Bengaluru and Mumbai, Corruption Plots demonstrates how talk of corruption, land grabs, and slum evictions is leveraged to make sense of unequal spatial change and used opportunistically by those who are themselves implicated in wrongdoing.

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Leela Mukherjee: A Guileless Modernist

Edited by R. Siva Kumar

Tulika Books

Rs 2000

This is the first book-length study of Leela Mukherjee (1916–2003), one of modern India’s pioneering sculptors for whom, like all women artists of her time, becoming an artist was an arduous project of resilience and self-determination.

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Fiction

Owlish

Dorothy Tse, translated by Natascha Bruce

Fitzcarraldo Editions

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Hidden Faces

Salvador Dalí, translated by Haakon Chevalier

Pushkin Press Classics

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Kafka’s Son

Szilárd Borbély, translated by Ottilie Mulzet

Seagull Books

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Wandering Souls

Cecile Pin

Fourth Estate

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Non-fiction

Breathless: Tuberculosis, Inequality, and Care in Rural India

Andrew McDowell

Stanford University Press

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What Iranians Want: Women, Life, Freedom

Arash Azizi

Oneworld Publications

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Believability: Sexual Violence, Media, and the Politics of Doubt

Kathryn Claire Higgins and Sarah Banet-Weiser

Polity Press

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They Call It Love: The Politics of Emotional Life

Alva Gotby

Verso Books

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