books

The dangerous game of Marlon James—Can genre fiction be great literature?

James seems to be saying to the establishment, to the same generous folks who once gave him the Booker and propelled him to the stratosphere: Go ahead and say this is not literature, I dare you. 
31 August 2022, 18:00 PM

Writer becomes bestseller after his own employer buys copies worth 9 crore

Chulbul, who has written 29 books of poetry in his career spanning 9 months, characterises his style as introspective, post-modernist neo-absurdism.
30 August 2022, 12:14 PM

‘Beshya O Bidhushir Golpo’ questions a gender-biassed society

The book contains important research on the type of language used by mainstream media in reporting news of rape, torture, and abuse of women.
28 August 2022, 10:54 AM

Rage is not singular for immigrants in Sabaa Tahir's novel

“What’s the word for when someone drinks so much, they are ruining your best friend’s life? Or the word for a man so vengeful about his own past that he wants to destroy your future? What’s the word for a woman who was sick for months, but refused to go to the doctor until it was too late?"
27 August 2022, 07:09 AM

'Celebrating Relationships' is a cookbook for a cause

Every recipe is credited to the person it is inspired from and the country it is staple to. The method of preparation of the dishes is detailed and very well explained, especially for amateur cooks.
27 August 2022, 06:39 AM

What to read if you liked watching ‘Hawa’

The film is a deep dive into Bangladesh’s rivers and the fishermen who hold up the country’s underbelly, along with the revelry, the mythologies that run across the folk culture of majhis and Bede communities. 
27 August 2022, 05:57 AM

Two upcoming Pinocchio films—why does he still resonate?

Zemeckis' version will likely be a comforting trip into nostalgia and sentiment, an ode to the power of the human heart to do the right thing despite life's many temptations. At the same time, del Toro's will be a dark fairytale with troubling implications, examining how we puppets can learn to think for ourselves.
26 August 2022, 15:02 PM

What impact did the Partition have on Dhaka's book trade?

The impact of the 1947 Partition was felt in every aspect of Dhaka's printing and publishing business, and the book trade in the new provincial capital took a momentous turn. How did it impact the booksellers, printers, and the material being published? 
26 August 2022, 13:07 PM

Ottessa Moshfegh’s ‘Lapvona’: A fairy tale for realists

Lapvona has paupers becoming princes, severe environmental disruptions adding to the owe of the common folk, and the old lady acting as a witch and healer, who serves in the role of a fairy godmother, albeit with a modern touch.
25 August 2022, 13:00 PM

‘The danger in telling a single Partition story is that it completely erases the individual’

1947 was overtaken almost immediately by the language question, and the question of identity.
25 August 2022, 07:05 AM

What HBO’s ‘House of the Dragon’ promises to bring to the world of ‘A Song of Ice & Fire’

Viewers of House of the Dragon won’t find themselves in a similar predicament as the events surrounding the second Targaryen Civil War have already been documented in full in Fire & Blood (2018).  
23 August 2022, 07:13 AM

Fahmida Azim “enjoys drawing real people living extraordinary lives”

The comics portray the experiences of the Uyghur community under the anti-Muslim police state imposed in China. The story includes testimonies given to the United Nations Human Rights Council and condensed by Anthony Del Col and art direction by Josh Adams.
22 August 2022, 13:44 PM

Habibur Rahman's 'Thar': Unpacking the language of the Bede community

Rahman defines the Thar language and its characteristics, origins, and variations and the ethnic identity of the Bede people.
17 August 2022, 18:00 PM

Syed Waliullah: husband, artist, thinker, writer

The book includes excerpts from Syed Waliullah's diary, snapshots of his editorial for Contemporary magazine, handwritten edits on his pieces for Shaogat magazine, and a comprehensive bibliography of the author's work and achievements.
17 August 2022, 18:00 PM

Geetanjali Shree's 'Tomb of Sand': A woman and her many borders

There is a plot embedded here, but this novel is so much more: a long, winding journey, centred on a family, with acute eyes on love and distances within a family, but also through language, Partition and imposed borders, and so much more.
17 August 2022, 18:00 PM

2023 International Booker Prize judges announced

Chairing next year’s judges’ panel will be Leïla Slimani, the French Moroccan novelist known for books like Lullaby (2016) and Adèle (2019).
17 August 2022, 14:40 PM

Mashiul Alam joins prestigious Iowa International Writing Program

Journalist and author Mashiul Alam has been selected as a resident of the 2022 Iowa International Writing Program (IWP), among the world’s most prestigious creative writing residencies.
16 August 2022, 14:21 PM

Post-Partition period in books: Prabhas Chandra, Tajuddin, and Ahmed Kamal offer testimonies

On the 75th anniversary of the 1947 Partition, we look back at the testimonies of the veteran politician, Prabhas Chandra Lahiri; the young political activist, Tajuddin Ahmed; and Professor Ahmed Kamal's book comprising research on and stories of the time.
15 August 2022, 12:58 PM

‘Mujib’ graphic novels: ‘Drawing a young Mujib and ensuring its acceptability was my biggest challenge’

I had to go through any and every film I could find that was set around the 1950s and after to understand how the society was during that time.
15 August 2022, 09:50 AM

How Salman Rushdie’s ‘Midnight’s Children’ changed my life

Metaphors have never made more sense to me than when these two swapped but intertwined lives personified India and Pakistan, the two newborn countries, whose births were marked by blood, pain and trauma.
14 August 2022, 13:15 PM