~ A Frightfully English Execution, by Shamini Flint ~ It’s tempting to describe Shamini Flint’s Inspector Singh novels as ‘cosy mysteries’. They feature an appealingly crusty detective, and are full of sly humour. Despite their lack of pretentiousness, though, they...
~ The Clockmaker’s Daughter, by Kate Morton ~ Dense novels with a haunted house at the center are Kate Morton’s niche, and The Clockmaker’s Daughter fits neatly into her genre. But there comes a point where sheer density can drag...
~ Chances Are…, by Richard Russo ~ In the first chapter of Chances Are…, the reader is introduced to classic Russo. When the [SAT] results came back, his mother met his father at the door. “Have a look at this”,...
~ The Unlikely Adventures of the Shergill Sisters, by Balli Kaur Jaswal ~ Can a pilgrimage to honour their mother’s dying wishes bring three bickering sisters together? And can they also examine the ghosts of their past and face the...
~ Stay with Me, by Ayobami Adebayo ~ Like most good novels, Stay with Me is both specific — set in Nigeria, in the 1990s, among both traditional and modern people — and universal — a deep look into the...
~ The Farewell, a film by Lulu Wang ~ A smart, touching film about diaspora and culture, The Farewell features Awkwafina in a wonderful starring role as Billi: Chinese-American, living in New York, with a grandmother in Changchun, China. Billi’s...
~ Professor Chandra Follows his Bliss, by Rajeev Balasubramanyam ~ Professor Chopra is the quintessential cantankerous, opinionated, elderly Indian man. He is also a very distinguished Cambridge academician in the field of economics. How distinguished exactly? The novel opens on...
~ The Spies of Shilling Lane, by Jennifer Ryan ~ A spy story set in WWII England featuring a middle-aged mother sounds like the perfect novel for a Sunday afternoon with a cup of tea but, alas, The Spies of...
~ Exit West, by Mohsin Hamid ~ While all four of Hamid’s novels have been well written, I thought his first (Moth Smoke) and this fourth, Exit West, were the most beautiful: moving, resigned yet optimistic, tackling complex and controversial...
~ The Indian Bride, by Karin Fossum ~ This title suggests a heart-rending Western novel involving child brides and patriarchal customs in the subcontinent, but in fact this is a Scandinavian-noir mystery in the genre made so popular by Stieg...
A romantic novel with some social commentary, Sonali Dev’s ‘Pride and Prejudice and Other Flavours’ very loosely follows the Austen original. This is all to the good, as most Austen retellings are pale shadows of the originals. (see ‘A Multitude...
~ Stealing Green Mangoes, by Sunil Dutta ~ Two brothers, of whom one grows up to be a cop and one to be a criminal. It sounds like a Hindi film script, indeed. But this dichotomy is just one of...
~ Big Sky, by Kate Atkinson ~ How thrilling it is when a new Jackson Brodie novel arrives in the post! Every one of Atkinson’s novels about Brodie, the retired military man turned cop turned private detective, has been a...
~ The Wife: Book and Movie ~ As a college student at Smith, Joan falls for her married professor, Joe Castleman, fascinated by his brilliance. It kills me to say it, but I was his student when we met. There...
~ A House for Mr Misra, by Jaishree Misra ~ Buying or building a house is a fraught exercise for any couple. Peculiar aesthetic preferences are discovered, behaviour under stress is tested, disagreements about location, style and price develop, and...
Intelligent consciousness
Treaties made “for as long as the grasses shall grow, and the rivers run”. And then abrogated.
Exquisitely crafted
The March of Time
What Goes Through the Mind of a Man
An enigmatic mother, precisely analyzed
To undrown, to cry until you don’t need to cry no more
Appalachian grit
“If Moscow rules meant watch your back, London rules meant cover your ass.”
A little gem
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