Beyond Crazy Rich Asians: Kevin Kwan on writing, remembering and being an observer, at Jaipur Literature Festival 2021
Kevin Kwan seems like the kind of writer you’d want to call on the phone; he’s a good conversationalist, talking about his work and life experiences and family and current events and themes like diversity and representation with great ease and charm.
Jaipur Literature Festival 2021: Douglas Stuart on how he shaped the world of his Booker-winning novel Shuggie Bain
Booker Prize winner Douglas Stuart's conversation with writer Paul McVeigh on Day 3 of the Jaipur Literature Festival, encapsulated what this virtual edition gets right.
Curious case of Aravind Adiga as a famous literary recluse: Booker-winning author is anomaly in publishing world
In an inversion of the mantra that marketing is a necessary evil, the bane of an author’s existence that ultimately has its reward, Adiga refuses to do too much publicity around his books, often to the chagrin of his publishers.
Leave the World Behind: In Rumaan Alam's apocalyptic narrative, finding reflections of a personal crisis
Rumaan Alam writes of a world which one is thrown into without caution, and expected to not only coexist but also find meaning in an involuntary collective experience.
AK vs AK, The Fabulous Lives of Bollywood Wives, Sushant Singh Rajput: Curious case of fact-fiction and the unreliable narrator
Vikramaditya Motwane's Netflix mockumentary AK vs AK rounds off a year characterised by its hybrid genre. From shows like Masaba Masaba and The Fabulous Lives of Bollywood Wives to mainstream media coverage of Sushant Singh Rajput's death case, the lines between fact and fiction were constantly blurred.
Novelist Bhaswati Ghosh on her Partition-era story: Important to remember past brutalities to avoid repeating violent histories
Bhaswati Ghosh’s debut novel Victory Colony 1950 is based on the lives of refugees from East Pakistan.
Atta Galatta Book Prize 2020 longlist announced for fiction and non-fiction; Bombay Balchão, Hijab among nominees
12 fiction and 10 non-fiction titles were longlisted in separate categories for the Atta Galatta prizes in English-language writing.
Megha Majumdar’s A Burning is a no-nonsense portrait of contemporary India that refuses to avert its eyes
It’s really tough to create something that has both the gut-punch impact of good literary fiction, and the sheer kinetic energy associated with genre masters. Megha Majumdar’s A Burning is that rare debut.
Mirza Waheed's Tell Her Everything, Santanu Das' India, Empire, and First World War Culture win The Hindu Prize 2019
The jury of the 2019 The Hindu Prize described Mirza Waheed's book as being 'an extraordinary work of fiction whose complexity, depth and narrative mastery would be hard to match in contemporary world literature'
Eat, Pray, Love author Elizabeth Gilbert on being unbothered by bestseller's chick-lit tag: 'I consider it an honour'
"Women tell me that the path of their life changed after reading the book," Elizabeth Gilbert says, of 2006 book Eat, Pray, Love. "This is shocking to say but the book was the first memo they ever got that said, ‘Your life belongs to you’."
Book excerpt | These, Our Bodies, Possessed by Light: Dharini Bhaskar's fiction debut navigates love, marriage, and family history
Dharini Bhaskar’s debut novel These, Our Bodies, Possessed by Light, is a work of literary fiction that follows Deeya, who is living in a tolerable marriage, until Neil enters her life, offering her romance and a new identity.
Indian writers who defined the decade, from Siddhartha Mukherjee to Sujatha Gidla, Perumal Murugan
Through conversations with columnists, critics and authors, collated here is a list of Indian writers across several languages who created insightful literature, and delightful reading through the 2010s.
In The Swap, her debut novel, writer Shuma Raha delves into Delhi's spouse-swapping scene
Shuma Raha's debut novel, The Swap, looks at the practice of spouse swapping in Delhi. Raha spoke to Firstpost about how playing mixed doubles is emerging as trend in pursuing pleasure amongst a section of urban Indians.
The Elena Ferrante effect: In Italy, female writers are — at long last — gaining much-deserved recognition
Elena Ferrante's best-selling books are inspiring female novelists and shaking up Italy’s male-dominated literary establishment | via @nytimes
Brick Lane author Monica Ali: Good writing means sometimes confronting difficult truths, going to uncomfortable places
Monica Ali says the more fiction you read, the more it expands your imagination. And that becomes a tool for stepping inside other people’s heads.
Girl With A Pearl Earring author Tracy Chevalier: 'Women in historical settings have often been ignored'
Much of Tracy Chevalier’s writing focuses on giving a voice to those who don’t normally get to tell their stories, particularly women. These are the stories she’s looking to tell.
Ducks, Newburyport review: Navigating the exhausting beauty of Lucy Ellmann's mindscape
Reading Lucy Ellmann's 1,000-plus pages, (almost, but not quite) single sentence long Ducks, Newburyport is an experience (as one would imagine) unlike any other I've come across in recent times.
10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World review: Arresting premise, hobbled potential in Elif Shafak's latest
Elif Shafak is undoubtedly a gifted writer, and you're constantly reminded of this while reading 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World. Unfortunately, what begins as a gripping premise with much potential, soon breaks down, tripping over its own traps of clichés and predictability.
Mission Mangal director Jagan Shakti, co-writer R Balki on why Akshay Kumar's superstardom catapulted their film
\Creative director R Balki, and Jagan Shakti, who helmed Mission Mangal, talk about making their film within a budget constraint, just like Mangalyaan.
Books of the week: From Savarkar biography to Sharbari Ahmed's Dust Under Her Feet, our picks
Our weekly roundup of books that should be on your radar.