
Books of the week: From Benyamin's Body and Blood, to Bobby Sachdeva’s Once There Was Me — our picks
Our weekly roundup of books that should be on your radar.

Coronavirus Outbreak: Crew member of Prithviraj's Aadujeevitham tests positive weeks after team returns from Jordan
Prithviraj had recently announced that he had tested negative for COVID-19.

In his sequel to Jasmine Days, Benyamin explores literary censorship, the aftermath of a failed revolution
Autocratic governments do not like freedom of speech, says Benyamin. He says the conviction within people that prompts them to rebel against dominant forces and act in ways that could even land them in prison should serve as a lesson to all governments.

Books of the week: From Benyamin's Al Arabian Novel Factory to The Family Table, FirstCulture's picks of 2019
FirstCulture picks: Our choice of 2019 books that should be on your radar.

Kerala Literature Festival 2020: Shashi Tharoor, Benyamin among speakers at fifth edition
The theme of the fifth edition of the Kerala Literature Festival is the environment and climate change. Apart from participants hailing from China, Slovenia, Egypt and South Africa, the festival also boasts of the addition of new programme formats: debates, straight talks, book discussions and readers' sessions

Far from ideas of imposed 'purity', many Indian books make a case for the country's variedness
Trying to understand what Indianness might be necessarily means learning new things all the time; you’re a student for life, constantly re-evaluating your assumptions. And there are a number of books that make you thrill to the possibilities of being impure or unfixed | Jai Arjun Singh writes in 'My Bookshelves'

Benyamin on writing about migrant workers, and his belief in Kerala's return to progressive politics
Benyamin, the author of Goat Days and Jasmine Days, says that though writing may be a lonely task, he finds great pleasure in it

As translated works receive praise from critics and readers, will regional language writers be offered more chances?
Translated works are making it to the shortlists of awards like the DSC Prize and the JCB Award. Authors who write in regional languages are now writing with the awareness that their books will reach a global audience

Crossword Book Awards: Shashi Tharoor, Snigdha Poonam win honours at 16th edition
Ruskin Bond and Soha Ali Khan won awards in the Popular category at the latest edition of the Crossword Book Awards

JCB Prize 2018: Benyamin's Malayalam novel Jasmine Days announced winner
The JCB Prize 2018 winner Jasmine Days is the story of a young Pakistani woman who witnesses the 2011 Arab Spring while working a radio jockey in a West Asian country

JCB Prize 2018 shortlist announced; top five includes books by Perumal Murugan, Anuradha Roy
The top-5 entries for this year's JCB Prize include Perumal Murugan's Poonachi, Anuradha Roy's All the Lives We Never Lived, Amitabha Bagchi's Half the Night is Gone, Shubhangi Swarup's Latitudes of Longing and Benyamin's Jasmine Days.

Benyamin on his new book Jasmine Days, writing about the Arab Spring and the beauty of Malayalam
Benyamin speaks about the politics embedded in his works and how he uses writing as an outlet for the pain he experiences