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Jan 18, 2025 | 
newindianexpress.com | Sharmistha Jha
From Virginia Woolf and John Berger to Mohandas Gandhi and Shiva Naipaul, Amitava Kumar tells us that great literature comes from observation. Kumar has repeated in his previous books, The Blue Book and The Yellow Book, that the first draft of great works of literature is recorded in the daily journals of the artist. In The Green Book, he once again tells the reader that the origins of art are in patience and observation.
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Dec 2, 2024 | 
hindustantimes.com | Sharmistha Jha
Sharmistha Jha: The narrator, a 40-something-year-old poet is suddenly faced with the possibility of death. He is isolated because of the 2020 Covid pandemic but art doesn’t leave him – a stanza from a poem, songs or the vision for art. Art becomes the bridge between the narrator’s past and his present. Do you believe that art has restorative power?
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Nov 22, 2024 | 
scroll.in | Sharmistha Jha
A tale of hope and justice, Ruthvika Rao’s The Fertile Earth reminds one of Arundhati Roy’s Booker Prize-winning novel The God of Small Things in some ways. Part of the story is told through the perspective of innocent children who are trapped in the crossfires of prejudiced adults. This is the story of Vijaya and Sree, daughters of Mahendra Deshmukh, and Ranga and Krishna, sons of the washerwoman in the Deshmukh household.
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Nov 22, 2024 | 
thehindu.com | Sharmistha Jha
Kaveh Akbar’s debut novel Martyr! is a book many will turn to, to find themselves — for if you are lost, this book might save you. The reader will ultimately find herself through the journey of Cyrus Shams — a poet, an addict in recovery, a straight-passing queer who is ambitious and vulnerable. Akbar has crafted each character to tell extraordinary stories. This is a book of art, a book of hope.
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Nov 7, 2024 | 
hindustantimes.com | Sharmistha Jha
Writers have chronicled the ambiguity of the idea of a free Kashmir. It is an idea that varies from person to person, from one ethnic group to another. For some, it means the demilitarization of Kashmir; for others, it means a merger with Pakistan; for still others, it means an autonomous Kashmir, independent of both India and Pakistan. Arundhati Roy wrote about it in The Ministry of Utmost Happiness.
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Nov 4, 2024 | 
thehindu.com | Sudipta Datta |Anil Menon |Pranavi Sharma |Sharmistha Jha
“I love the fact that a book can be like a living thing,” said one of the judges for the Booker Prize 2024, as they were narrowing down the titles for this year’s shortlist from the longlist of 13 books. Artist and writer Edmund de Waal, head of the prize jury, said the list included “books that navigate what it means to belong, to be displaced and to return”, with settings ranging from World War I battlefields to America’s Deep South in the 19th century to the International Space Station.
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Oct 25, 2024 | 
thehindu.com | Sharmistha Jha
In The Safekeep, shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2024, Dutch writer Yael van der Wouden presents a portrait of a society grappling with the aftermath of World War II and the German occupation of the Netherlands. An unlikely romance buds in the quiet town of Overjissel but as the reader reaches the end of the story, it becomes clear that all this has been taking place in the long shadows of German occupation and concentration camps.
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Aug 8, 2024 | 
hindustantimes.com | Sharmistha Jha
The story of Avery, Bonnie, Nicky and Lucky and their dysfunctional family, Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors is a beautiful examination of sisterhood and grief as three of the sisters learn to navigate the death and loss of Nicky. They had always been a band of four against the world, against an alcoholic father and a helpless mother. Now, a year after they lost Nicky in a tragic accident, they have been reduced to three, an odd number.
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Aug 8, 2024 | 
htsyndication.com | Sharmistha Jha
Posted On: 2024-08-08 Posted By: Sharmistha Jha Health & Lifestyle Travel Education Hindustan Times India, Aug. 8 -- The story of Avery, Bonnie, Nicky and Lucky and their dysfunctional family, Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors is a beautiful examination of sisterhood and grief as three of the sisters learn to navigate the death and loss of Nicky.
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Jul 7, 2024 | 
scroll.in | Sharmistha Jha
Written by Jnanpith Award-winning Konkani writer Damodar Mauzo and translated by Jerry Pinto from the Konkani, Boy, Unlovedis the coming-of-age story of Vipin, born to a middle-class family in Goa. He is lonely for the most part until he learns how to let people in. Vipin’s father stays angry all his life and inflicts pain on his wife and son. Vipin is used to his father’s aggression and his mother’s submission – he has never known familial love.
