Reviews & Musings

Namrata reviews The Demoness: The Best Bangladeshi Stories- Selected and Edited by Niaz Zaman (Published by Aleph Book Company, 2021) and emphasizes how these stories are an immaculate reflection of all that encapsulates Bangladesh.  Published by: Aleph Book Company  Year of Publishing: March 2021  Price: INR 799/-  The Demoness, as the title suggests is a collection of the best Bangladeshi stories written by various authors and poets. As we know, Bangladeshi is not a language and hence these stories are not translated works originally written in Bangladeshi. But this collection definitely captures the best of Bangladeshi literature possible. Ranging from stalwarts like Kazi Nazrul, Shawkat Ali to Anwara Syed Haq, Jharna Das Purkayastha and Akhtaruzzaman Elias- these stories are strung together brilliantly to create a captivating read. In the words of Niaz Zaman, the editor of this collection:   “’ Bangladeshi Stories’ refers to stories written in a political and linguistic space. It

  Namrata reviews Anubha Yadav’s The Anger of Saintly Men (BEE Books, 2021) calling it a stark reminder of the toxic masculinity, patriarchy, and all the things in between.  Publisher: BEE Books  Year: March 2021  The Anger of Saintly Men written by Anubha Yadav is a stark reminder of the toxic masculinity, patriarchy, and all the things in between. A deadly concoction of all of this becomes the daily diet of a lot of young boys and girls in a country like ours, who when they grow up, turn into unrecognizable individuals. Anubha Yadav is a writer, academic and filmmaker who teaches broadcast studies at University of Delhi. Even before one begins reading the book, the blurb reminds you of another book that spoke at length about the great gender divide in terms of the treatment since childhood in India, which eventually leads to a lot of the biases we harbour as adults – Chup: Breaking the Silence About India’s Women by Deepa Narayan. (Juggernaut, 2019) Yadav’s story adds more weig