The novel opens with a photographer, the eponymous Maali Almeida, who has woken up dead in a celestial visa office, while his body sinks in the Beira Lake in Colombo. Maali has seven moons to find the man and woman he loves and lead them to  "a hidden cache of photos that will rock Sri Lanka".

Four of Arefin’s novels have been published so far, alongside three books of poetry and critically acclaimed translations of the Iliad and of Kafka’s short stories. 

“War is vast. It reaches across the horizon, loftier and older than peace. Killing came before war, but it might also be that refuge preceded war.

He spoke of women on equal terms at a time when women were not even people in the country where he lived (and they still are not—neither in the land of Lalon nor in the world that we proudly claim as ours.

A portion of the donation has been given to Sanjida Akter of Natore for the treatment of her eyes. Akter was the victim of an acid attack in November last year. 

Gabriel Garcia Marquez once famously said, “All human beings have three lives: public, private, and secret.”

The 22 stories are written by popular, contemporary writers with big names such as Muhammed Zafar Iqbal, Ahsan Habib, and Mehedi Haque.

The Penguin Classics edition of Sultana’s Dream and Padmarag comes in a paperback, ebook, and as an audiobook narrated by Priya Ayyar, a television and film actor and award-winning audiobook narrator with a BFA and MFA from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts.

As the Nobel Prize authorities recently declassified the list of nominees and nominators for the for the Nobel Prize of several years, a wealth of information tumbled out.

We can’t just wish things away, we can’t disown parts of our culture and country because they don’t fit our particular ideal. That is a cop-out, an easy way out, that is claiming we are pristine, and the dirt lives elsewhere, claiming we are saints and that is not our sin. 

Winter nights are surely the best time for ghost stories or tales of spirits returning from the dead. This year, The Daily Star is preparing for some chilling winter night haunting.

Alice Beck Kehoe (1934-) is a family friend, and I have her permission to use her first name in short for this essay. After reading Alice’s autobiography Girl Archaeologist: Sisterhood in a Sexist Profession (2022), Raudah, my wife, recommended the book to me with confidence that I would love it.

Tahmima Anam, the Bangladesh-born British writer, is known at home and abroad for her spontaneous and vivid writing style. She is widely distinguished as a novelist and columnist with a profound awareness of her native and international culture.

Who is Annie Ernaux?

“Free light source plus [a] dude I can sit and ruminate with, it’s perfect.” 

Protiti’s poems are mostly ‘bare’ conversational musings exploring ‘selfhood, separation, exile, love and longing’.

I discover that teaching is more about reading people.

Fanfiction is just a devoted fan's mind asking, "What if?" 

In The Footsteps Of Rama attempts to retrace the fabled journey of Rama, travelling from Ayodhya to the Dandakaranya forest and Panchavati (near Nashik) and on to Kishkindhya (close to Hampi), Rameshwaram and Sri Lanka. 

For these morbid thoughts, go to the mountains and cry. For these morbid thoughts, kill all your darlings. For these morbid thoughts, shower as soon as you can. For these morbid thoughts, know that it won’t pass.