The lifespan of a century gave Violeta Del Valle innumerable memories, and she tells her story in Isabel Allende’s new novel, Violeta (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2022). Writing to one named Camilo—someone she loves more than all others—Violeta recounts the saga of a hundred years.

As the white hot sun pierced through the soufflé clouds on an afternoon a lifetime ago, my aunt and I leaned back a little too precariously on our rattan armchairs while talking about the allure of academe.

“My story concerns the lost souls of a metropolis”, the author tells The Daily Star, “those magnificent beasts that cannot find their places in a growing, sprawling cityscape.” 

What does our editorial process lack? Why can’t we hire good proofreaders? The answer lies in the economics of it. 

I channelled my hurt, anger and frustration into poetry and flash fiction that had nothing to do with my agitator and her cronies.

Aminul Karim rightly believes that China's race for dominance will continue unabated. He also believes that in spite of that, a kind of Asian peace "should prevail". No one will contest this idea, but whether it will prevail depends to a large extent on the behaviour of the protagonists.

For World Book Day on April 23, we bring together a list of books about books as a means to glimpse at and tap into the vast knowledge, power, and pleasure that is to be found in these complex objects. Are they, indeed, just objects? Or historical artefacts? Or weapons?

At the start of Amitava Kumar’s latest novel, A Time Outside This Time (Aleph Book Company, 2021), the main character Satya, an Indian-born US-based journalist, is at a swanky artists’ retreat in Italy where he is reading 1984

How is it that the privileged lives of the British upper classes, in a period of time which lasted arguably less than a decade, have managed to leave behind such an impressive legacy in English literature?

Folk-ballads are living archives that represent the imagination, values, ideas, and aesthetics of the people to whom they belong. Folk-ballads are living archives that represent the imagination, values, ideas, and aesthetics of the people to whom they belong.

It’s fascinating how book spines can portray so much creativity.

Reversal of fairy tale tropes and themes of mental health and alienation run dominantly across One Minute Past Midnight (Nymphea Publications, 2022), a debut collection of poetry and prose by poet and teacher Arshi Mortuza. 

In Speak, Silence: In Search of W.G. Sebald (Bloomsbury, 2021), you write that the author’s British publisher, Christopher MacLehose, was in a dilemma to decide on Sebald’s genre of writing. After writing about his novel and his life for so long, how would you define Sebald’s genre?

What makes them my favourites, if I can’t remember the names of the engrossing characters or the details of the intricate plots in some of my “favourite” books?

Selvadurai’s book, set against the backdrop of escalating political tension in Sri Lanka prior to the 1983 riots, portrays the effect of the Tamil-Sinhalese clash on the personal lives of his characters, before giving a glimpse of the riots in the very last chapter.

Each hardcover spine contains the story of how Nora’s life would have turned out if she had chosen differently—if she had picked a different career path, moved to a different country or married a different person.

Tongues and Bellies, published by Linen Press (2021), is described by its blurb as an anthology where “sensual and surprising stories play a tantalising game of hide and seek with lies and truth”.

Ranjana Biswas, an essayist and researcher, received the award at a ceremony held on March 22 at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Dhaka. 

Complexity in any area of law leads to specialization. But it also comes with the risk of tunnel vision, of failing to visualize the bigger picture.

We get to know only so much about what happens around us until literature takes an interest in it. The same would have happened with the shutdown of the jute mill in Khulna, nearly two decades ago, if a novel like Kalchakra (Annesha Prokashon, 2018) had not presented it to us.