Some books you read once and put down. Others stay with you, keep asking you questions years later. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is the second kind. On the surface, it’s about a trial in a small Alabama town during the Great Depression. A Black man, Tom Robinson, is falsely accused of raping…
We all know the Mahabharata. The Pandavas are the heroes—noble, righteous, destined to win. The Kauravas are the villains—jealous, cruel, destined to lose. That’s the version we’ve been told for thousands of years. The version where good triumphs over evil, where dharma prevails, where the right side wins. Ajaya: Roll of the Dice by Anand…
This isn’t a review. I’m not trying to tell you whether White Nights by Fyodor Dostoevsky is good or bad, whether you should read it or skip it. These are just thoughts that came up while reading it again. Questions I found myself asking. Things I noticed this time that I didn’t notice before. Sometimes…
Some books about refugees focus on the drama of escape. The moment of fleeing. The danger. The loss. Without a Country by Ayşe Kulin does something different. It shows you what comes after. After you’ve escaped the immediate danger. After you’ve arrived somewhere safe. After the relief wears off and you realize: now what? How…
Paulo Coelho writes books where ordinary dissatisfaction becomes spiritual crisis. Where everyday problems get reframed as cosmic questions. Where someone’s personal mess somehow reveals universal truths. Adultery tries to do this. It follows Linda—a woman with a stable marriage, two kids, a comfortable life—who’s bored. Restless. Feeling like something’s missing even though she has everything…
There’s a difference between telling readers a character is brilliant and actually showing them brilliance at work. The Chanakya Chant by Ashwin Sanghi understands this distinction in theory. In practice, it consistently chooses the easier path: asserting intelligence rather than earning it. The book runs two parallel timelines. One follows Chanakya in ancient India as…
There’s a particular kind of suffocation that comes from being told you’re free while living in a cage. The Silent Raga by Ameen Merchant understands this. Deeply. Janaki makes music because it isn’t hobby or talent—it’s how she stays alive inside a life that keeps trying to make her smaller. The stars exist, yes, but…
Some historical novels turn the past into adventure. They give you heroes to root for, villains to hate, and a clear sense that everything happened for a reason. Gujarat’s Last Rajput King: Karan Ghelo by Nand Shankar Mehta is not that kind of book. This is a novel about failure. About how a kingdom fell…
Some books take you somewhere else. This one keeps you exactly where things are. In the narrow lanes of rural poverty, in homes without doors, in lives shaped by caste and survival. The Elephant Chaser’s Daughter by Shilpa Raj is a memoir, not a story. That difference matters. Shilpa doesn’t dress up her childhood or…
Some books comfort you. Some challenge you. Some make you angry. One Part Woman by Perumal Murugan does something different. It sits heavy in your chest. It makes you uncomfortable in a way you can’t quite shake off. This is a novel about a couple—Kali and Ponna—who love each other deeply. They have a good…
Some novels announce themselves loudly. They grab you by the shoulders and demand your attention with dramatic events and shocking revelations. The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri is not that kind of novel. This is a book that works quietly. That builds slowly. That stays with you not because of what happens, but because of what…
Kazuo Ishiguro writes novels where what’s not said matters more than what is. Where memory bends and reshapes itself. Where characters tell you their stories but leave out the parts they can’t face. An Artist of the Floating World is that kind of novel. Set in post-war Japan, it follows Masuji Ono, a retired artist,…