Reviews & Musings

Namrata reviews Nasreen Rehman's first volume in The Collected Stories of Saadat Hasan Manto-Volume 1: Bombay and Poona (Aleph Books, 2022) and calls it a must-read collection. As a writer, Saadat Hasan Manto needs no introduction. His works are celebrated widely for their quintessential depiction of the stark realities of life. The Collected Stories of Saadat Hasan Manto – Volume 1: Bombay and Poona – Translated by Nasreen Rehman and published by Aleph Books, is the first of a three-volume series that will contain all of Saadat Hasan Manto’s 255 known stories in English from Urdu for the very first time. Volume 1 collects fifty-four stories and two essays written by Manto about his time in Bombay and Poona in colonial India. Read the full review on Kitaab .

ISBN ‏ : ‎ 978-9390652242  Publisher ‏ : ‎ Aleph Book Company Price: INR 699/- Genre: Fiction/ Contemporary Fiction About the Book The Mahabharat is renowned for its great battles, heroic men, and gods walking the pathways of mortals. However, the beating heart of the epic is often forgotten—the stories of its women. Many of these exceptional women appear in Song of Draupadi—the indomitable Satyavati, the otherworldly Ganga, the indestructible Kunti, and the tenacious Gandhari—but the passionate and fiery Draupadi rises above them all to grip the imagination of the reader. Born of a dangerous sacrifice, Draupadi and her brother Drishtadumna are called forth to avenge Drona’s insult to their father.  While Drishtadumna is expected to kill Drona on the battlefield, Draupadi’s role is not set out, but she dreams of fire and blood. From beloved daughter and princess of Panchala to wife of the brave Pandavas and queen of Indraprastha, Draupadi finds herself exiled to the forest,...

ISBN‏ : ‎ 978-9390652747  Publisher ‏ : ‎ Aleph Book Company  Price: INR 999/- Genre: Fiction / Anthology/ Myths, Legends, and Fairytales About the Book From Jammu and Kashmir in the North to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the South, from Dadra and Nagar havens and Daman and Diu in the West to Arunachal Pradesh in the east, and all the other states and Union territories of India in between, here are 108 fabulous folk tales, legends, and stories from more than fifty-seven languages and dialects. You will delight in wondrous tales of heroes and heroines, of ordinary men and women, of wicked mothers-in-law and foolish sons-in-law, of love lost and won, of a tree who loved a girl, of seers and wise men, of chudails, werewolves, and wizards, of a Potter girl and the divine cow, of demoiselle cranes and humans transforming into elephants, of how the Woodpecker got its Crest, and much, much more. Startlingly original, brilliant, wise, and often funny, these stories will delight...

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 politi...

Image Source: Amazon.in ISBN: 978-8194874157 Genre: Fiction, Mythological fiction, Legends Publisher: Aleph Book Company (10 December 2020)   Price: INR 999/- About the Book One of India’s greatest epics, The Kathasaritsagara is thought to have been compiled around 1070 CE by Somadeva Bhatt, during the reign of Raja Ananta of the Lohara dynasty of Kashmir. Even though this extraordinary work is one of the longest creations in Indian and world literature, it is considered to be only a small part of an even longer work called Brihatkatha, composed by Gunadhya in a lost language known as Paisachi. Somadeva collected and retold the stories of The Kathasaritsagara in Sanskrit to entertain Raja Ananta’s wife, Suryavati. This masterpiece is foundational for many of India’s best-loved folk tale traditions, such as Vetala Pachisi and Panchatantra, and it has influenced many of the world’s best-known classics, including One Thousand and One Nights, The Decameron, and The Canterbury T...

  Namrata reviews Raza Mir’s Murder at Mushaira (Aleph Book Company, 2021) and calls it a thrilling murder mystery with the charm of the bygone era woven intricately in it.  Murder at Mushaira as the name suggests is a historical thriller, where the legendary poet Ghalib turns into a sleuth and solves this murder mystery. Set in 1857, when Bahadur Shah Zafar ruled on Delhi, this book is infused with drama, mystery, history, poetry ( sher-o-shayari ) and humour. Author Raza Mir has brought together his love and passion for history and Urdu poetry in this book. As is evident from his previous works, Ghalib: A Thousand Desires, The Taste of Words: An Introduction to Urdu Poetry, and the co-author of Anthems of Resistance: A Celebration of Progressive Urdu Poetry, Mir is a perfect aficionado on this subject to weave a tale around it. Read the full review on Kitaab . 

Image Source: Amazon.in Publisher : Aleph Book Company  Release Date: 31 October 2020 Genre: Non-fiction, Indian History, Political Structure, Political Ideology ISBN-13 : 978-8194735380 Price: INR 799/- Now available on About the Book There are over a billion Indians alive today. But are some Indians more Indian than others?  To answer this question, one that is central to the identity of every man, woman, and child who belongs to the modern Republic of India, eminent thinker and bestselling writer Shashi Tharoor explores hotly contested ideas of nationalism, patriotism, citizenship, and belonging. In the course of his study, he explains what nationalism is, and can be, reveals who is anti-national, what patriotism actually means, and explores the nature and future of Indian nationhood. He gives us a clear-sighted view of the forces working to undermine the ‘idea of India’ (a phrase coined by Rabindranath Tagore) that has evolved through history and which, in its moder...

  Image Source: Amazon.in Publisher : Aleph Book Company Year of Publishing: 10 October 2020 Genre: Anthology, Translations, Collected Short Stories, Hindi Short Stories, Classic,  ISBN-13 : 978-8194735304 Price: INR 699/- Buy Link: Amazon   About the Book The twenty-five stories in The Greatest Hindi Stories Ever Told represent the finest short fiction in Hindi literature. Selected and translated by editor, writer, and translator Poonam Saxena, and ranging from early literary masters of the form such as Premchand, Chandradhar Sharma Guleri, Bhisham Sahni, Harishankar Parsai, Mannu Bhandari, and Shivani to contemporary greats such as Asghar Wajahat, Uday Prakash, Sara Rai, and others, the collection has stories of darkness, hope, triumph, anger, and irony. In Premchand’s ‘The Thakur’s Well’, ‘low-caste’ Gangi struggles to find drinking water for her ill husband; in ‘The Times Have Changed’ by Krishna Sobti, the matriarch Shahni bids a heart-breaking farewell to her vill...

Image Source: Amazon.in About the Book In a peaceful southern town, amidst lush spice plantations, trouble is brewing. In the town live three generations of two families, one Hindu and the other Muslim, whose lives will be changed forever by the coming violence. At risk are Dada, the ageing grandfather who lovingly tends and talks to the plants on his estate; his strong-willed grandchildren, Abu and Fareeda; the newly married Devaki, who cannot fathom the forces that are turning her husband and her father into fanatics; Mariam, of the gifted hands, who kneads and pounds the fatigued muscles of tourists into submission; and Garuda, the high-school teacher who, in his own desperate way, is trying to impart the truth about the country’s history to a classroom of uninterested students. Quietly but surely, the spectre of religious intolerance is beginning to haunt the community in the guise of the Self-Respect Forum whose mission is to divide the town and destroy the delicate balance of res...

Book Review by Namrata Name: The Merman and the Book of Power- A Qissa Author: Musharraf Ali Farooqi Publisher: Aleph Book Company, 2019 The Merman and the Book of Power  is the retelling of a  qissa , a classic storytelling form in Urdu. This epic novel combines myth with history to give us a glimpse of the evolution of civilisation. Author Musharraf Ali Farooqi works have been critically acclaimed and have been a finalist for both, Man Asia Literary Prize 2012 and DSC Prize for South Asian Literature 2008 apart from being longlisted for IMPAC/Dublin Literary Prize. Along with being a writer, he is also an editor, translator and founder of the Storykit Program. As Farooqi says in the Author’s Note,  “This book merges the parallel histories, myths and multiple personas for Apollonius of Tyana, Hermes Trismegistus and Alexander the Great in the Western and Eastern literary canon, and the various religious, occult and apocalyptic traditions associated with them.” Deeply rem...

About the Author The Book of Indian Kings comprises stories and essays about some of the greatest rulers and statesmen in the history of India. Beginning with an essay on one of the country’s iconic rulers, the Mauryan emperor, Ashoka, by our greatest living historian, Romila Thapar, this volume brings together some of the finest writers of our time on a glittering array of monarchs, including Salman Rushdie on Emperor Akbar, Khushwant Singh on Maharaja Ranjit Singh, William Dalrymple on Bahadur Shah Zafar, Rajmohan Gandhi on Tipu Sultan, Jadunath Sarkar on Chhatrapati Shivaji, and Manu S. Pillai on Krishnadeva Raya.  Source: Amazon.in The Emergence of Empire: Mauryan India by Romila Thapar The First Hindu Empire by Abraham Eraly Raja Raja Chozhar by Kalki Krishnadeva Raya by Manu S. Pillai The Shelter of the World by Salman Rushdie Shivaji and His Times by Jadunath Sarkar Tipu Sultan by Rajmohan Gandhi The Last Mughal by William Dalrymple Ranjit Singh, Maharaja of the ...

ABOUT THE BOOK Image Source: Goodreads.com The Greatest Odia Stories Ever Told showcases Odia’s greatest storytellers ranging from literary masters such as Fakir Mohan Senapati, Gopinath Mohanty, Reba Ray, and Manoj Das to contemporary stalwarts like Pratibha Ray, and Nrusingha Tripathy, among others. A young woman who was dragged away by a crocodile mysteriously resurfaces after a decade in Manoj Das’s ‘Mrs Crocodile’; a pet goat let loose in a government office causes amusement and chaos in Gopinath Mohanty’s ‘The Solution’; Godavaris Mahapatra’s ‘Maguni’s Bullock Cart’ deals with the anxieties of a bullock cart driver stuck between the trappings of traditions and modernity—the stories in this anthology traverse an exciting range of themes from fantasy to reality, and bone-chilling horror to rib-tickling humour. Timeless, evocative and striking, The Greatest Odia Stories Ever Told offers a rich selection of stories that are unrivalled in their range, style and complexit...

About the Book In these three stunningly original, lush and provocative novellas, award-winning writer K. R. Meera explores the tragedy, betrayal and violence that rise out of the dark heart of love. ‘ The Angel’s Beauty Spots ’ is a disquieting story about Angela’s repeated infidelities and the trauma of failed love; in ‘ And Forgetting the Tree, I… ’ Radhika tries to come to terms with a former love that refuses to leave her; and ‘ The Deepest Blue’ uses magic and metaphor to tell the story of a wife who yearns for a love that transcends lifetimes. Esteemed as one of the country’s finest storytellers, K. R. Meera’s The Angel’s Beauty Spots: Three Novellas will serve to embellish her already considerable reputation as a writer of strikingly original fiction. These novellas have been translated from the Malayalam by J. Devika.

                                           About the Book ISBN: 978-9388292764 Genre: Translations/ Fiction/ Short Stories Price: Rs. 399/- Publisher: Aleph Book Company The Hindi short story is one of the most exciting genres in modern Indian literature. The fifteen stories in this volume, by some of the most prominent writers in the field, provide a unique picture of the country today.  Most of the stories focus on urban middle-class individuals and especially those whose lives are marked by alienation and loneliness. They highlight the disruptions caused in a society that is modernizing at a rapid pace while still being blessed and burdened by a strong sense of traditional morality, duty and family ties. Among the writers included in this volume are Kamleshwar, Nirmal Verma, Phanishwarnath 'Renu, Krishna Baldev Vaid and Mohan Rakesh.

Source: Goodreads.com About the book:  ' Mihir has followed Indian cricket since his school days in Mumbai and the nine waves in his own style will bring out the subtleties and the nuances, pulls and pressures, the culture and colour, the politics and the people that make Indian cricket different from other countries’ .’ — Sunil Gavaskar  ‘ The nine waves will captivate all .’ — Ravi Shastri  ‘ Mihir Bose is fantastically well informed on world cricket and has great insight into the game.’ — Moeen Ali  'The nine waves is a tour de force. The most entertaining and comprehensive book on cricket in this country to be published yet, it tells the story of the nine great waves that have rolled through the history of Indian cricket, from India’s international debut in 1932 to the incredible achievements of Virat Kohli’s team today. Each wave or era was chock-full of mesmerizing stars, thrilling moments, great victories, heart-breaking losses and signi...

Introduction ISBN:978-9388292207 Genre:  Non-Fiction/ History / Travel Publishers: Aleph Book Company Price: Rs. 799/- (I got the book for review from the publisher)

Introduction Source: Amazon.in ISBN:978-93-88292-14-6 Genre:  Fiction/ Translation Publishers: Aleph Book Company Price: Rs. 299/- (I got the book for review from the publisher)

Introduction ISBN:978-93-87561-41-0 Genre:  Fiction Publishers: Aleph Book Company Price: Rs. 599/- (I got the book for review from the publisher)

Introduction ISBN:978-93-87561-42-7 Genre:  Fiction/ Classics Publishers: Aleph Book Company Price: Rs. 399/- (I got the book for review from the publisher)