Prem Chand

Atranslator has to be faithful to the text he/she is translating into another language. A translator has to observe not only the linguistic practices of the language into which he/she is translating the text but also keep in perspective the cultural norms of the recipient society. He/she has to stick to the stylistic devices employed…


Reviewed by: Harish Narang
Govind Mishra

The House with Five Courtyards is an epic family saga, quietly told and sensitively translated. The novel Paanch Aangano Wala Ghar, written originally in Hindi, won Govind Mishra the Vyas Samman in 1998.


Reviewed by: Namita Gokhale
Omair Ahmad

Ashish Khetan’s cover story, ‘Dazed & Confused Again’ (Tehelka, Vol.8, Issue 37, 17 Sept, 2011) traces the growth of one Abu Faizal Khan, an IM operative from Hansapur village in Azamgarh, UP. The tenor of Khetan’s report is no different from the reality of Jamal Ansari, Omair Ahmad’s protagonist in Jimmy The Terrorist…


Reviewed by: Debashis Chakraborty
Jaishree Misra

Jaishree Misra’s new book, A Scandalous Secret, her seventh work of fiction and the third in her ‘Secret’ series testifies to the popularity of this genre of Indian fiction. The book is set in the present, and has at its core some universal themes—social pressure, problem of rejection, mother- daughter relationship and urban musings….


Reviewed by: Swati Das
Tulsi Badrinath

Tulsi Badrinath has produced another elegant work, which explores the urban map in new ways. In this novel, she brings to our attention the banality of middle class chores and the concern with the details of these. It is the contradictions within the facade that interest Badrinath. Essentially, she has the eye of the passerby…


Reviewed by: Susan Visvanathan
Bulbul Sharma

Bulbul Sharma’s latest novel, The Tailor of Giripul is the perfect book to curl up with on a rainy monsoon evening. It is redolent of the sounds and smells of the mountains, which the author evidently loves, and of the minutae of life lived in the small forgotten little villages nestled in the heart of those mountains…


Reviewed by: Ranjana Kaul