Skip to main content

Book Review: Transactions of Belongings by Jaya Padmanabham

Introduction

ISBN – 9789383562275
Genre: Fiction/ Drama
Publishers: Leadstart Publishing Pvt Ltd
Price: Rs. 145/- (I got this book for review from the publisher)

The short stories in the collection blend emotion and introspection. Moments of urgency and sweetness are fully canvassed and explored. The stories draw out and examine the texture of emotional belonging. In "His Curls," a mother suffers the anguish of wondering if her son is a terrorist. The ending is left to interpretation and several possibilities. The reader is forced to teeter between laughter and sadness in the tragicomedy of "An Indian Summer." "The Blue Arc" is a redemptive tale of a young woman who shows enormous courage. Each story in the collection is a journey of insights. Transactions of Belonging is a unique, intense and gripping work of short fiction.
Read about it HERE


Behind The book

Source: Google Images



About the author

You can know about the author and read her interview HERE

Me thinks

The cover page is very intriguing. Those eyes staring at you directly seem very inviting and that’s what they convey about the stories too. The stories are exactly that – inviting and intriguing.

Transactions of belonging is a collection of 12 short stories, each a masterpiece. One that haunts you for long time making you look at life and relationships around you differently.

The author has managed to keep the beauty of these stories intact with their innocence by using very simplistic language with no word play at all. It holds a reader to the story, helps him connect with the story, its characters, their pain, their confusion and all that they go through within their hearts and minds.

I took a long time to finish this book, longer than my usual reading pace for I wanted to soak in those stories. They are so mesmerising that they take you along on a beautiful journey from where you don’t feel like coming back, to a place called nowhere which still manages to define your belonging there. Superb piece of collection and hats off to the writer for stringing together such amazing pieces of pearls together to make a book worthy of reading and re-reading forever.

Strongly recommended for its simplistic beauty.

Foodie Verdict

This book is like chickoo pudding - deliciously yummy!

Source: Google Images

Popular posts from this blog

A perfect SUNDAY

Remember the time when Sundays used to mean waiting for the evening, to be glued to TV screens for the popular award functions? That was my defination of perfect Sunday. Well today is going to one such as (clearing throat) I have been awarded.  (*** Doing the happy dance***) Source: Google Images

Book Review: Palestine Wail - Poems by Yahia Lababidi

In Palestine Wail: Poems , Yahia Lababidi creates a profound and unflinching exploration of the ongoing Palestinian crisis, drawing from his own heritage and heartbreak to reflect on a political and humanitarian catastrophe that has unfolded across decades. This collection, imbued with personal history, political outrage, and spiritual contemplation, serves as both a witness to injustice and a call to humanity. The work’s origins lie deeply in Lababidi’s own roots—his Palestinian grandmother, Rabiha Dajani, was forced to flee Jerusalem at gunpoint, a traumatic event that reverberates throughout Lababidi’s poetry.  As an Arab-American writer, Lababidi is uniquely positioned to speak on the intersection of identity, politics, and human rights. His poetry, both personal and political, draws a clear line between the suffering of the Palestinian people and the complicity of global powers in perpetuating that suffering. Through his words, Lababidi eloquently counters the equation that Z...

Book Review: Butterflies of Success by Ranga Iyer

ISBN: ‎ 978-8196920951 Genre: Personal Transformation Publisher: Highbrow Scribes Year of Publishing: 2024 About the Book "Poverty is relative term" Lack of money alone cannot stop someone from succeeding in life. The social evil of poverty can be defeated with a determined mind, courage, mental strength, and education. Butterflies of Success follows the compelling journey of Mukta and Prem, a couple with four daughters who leave their village in search of a better life in Thakurli, near Bombay. Facing numerous challenges, including living in a small, unsanitary dwelling, financial struggles, and health issues, Mukta leads her family of six in a fight to improve their situation. She starts by selling boiled chickpeas and gradually expands to open a diner and a tailoring unit with Prem's help. As the business progresses, the family strives to educate and marry off their daughters, which brings new challenges, including mounting debts. Not oblivious to her parents' da...