A story of living hell
M. L. Raina
This Blinding Absence of Light
by Tahar Ben Jalloun.
translated from French
by Linda Coverdale.
The New Press, New York. Pages 195. $ 18.
Moroccan-born writer, Tahar Ben Jalloun, recently won the Impac Dublin Award, world’s richest prize of euros 1,00,000, for his novel This Blinding Absence of Light. Published in French last year, the novel now appears in a forceful English translation.

Mapping the paths of the Gurus
Darshan Singh Maini
Walking with the Sikh Gurus: Historical Gurdwaras of Punjab
edited by Swati Mitra.
Good Earth Publications, New Delhi.
Pages 228. Rs 250.
Books on Sikhism abound, and the swelling literature on the subject today makes an impressive exhibition of talent, erudition, scholarship and vision. We now have several authoritative translations of the Adi Granth. Sikhism, which is just a little over 500 years old, has drawn the critical and reverential attention of renowned writers.

Images of the chopped half
Samra Rahman
Across the Wagah: An Indian’s Sojourn in Pakistan
by Maneesha Tikekar
Promilla & Co. in association with Bibliophile South Asia
Pages 360. Rs 750.
Initially, there was a temptation to call this book a ‘curate’s egg’, excellent in parts. But it had to be resisted since it would have implied that parts of it are bad and hence the whole was no good at all. That would have been quite unfair, since the only part that occasioned the temptation, suffers mainly by comparison with the others, which are indeed excellent.

Eternal love, minus the pain of separation
Aradhika Sekhon
The Rupa Book of Love Stories
edited by Ruskin Bond.
Rupa and Co, New Delhi. Pages 211. Rs 295
Ruskin Bond wonders at the fact that the hero and heroine of every love story seem destined to die in one another’s arms, but he justifies tragic endings by saying that had these not ended on a high note, these love stories—of Laila Majnu, Romeo and Juliet or the lovers of operas like Carmen or Tosca—might well have ended in boredom, disenchantment and drudgery. As Oscar Wilde said: "Marriage is a romance in which the hero dies in the first chapter."

A perfect ten for Chetan Bhagat
Five Point Someone
by Chetan Bhagat. Rupa & Co. Rs 95. Pages 270.
Chetan Bhagat might have scored a five-point average in IIT, but Kannan Shastri gives him a perfect 10 for Five Point Someone. Youthful, funny and highly original, the book guarantees more than a few laughs. Humra Quraishi, meanwhile, catches up with the new celebrity on the literary block.

He brought objectivity to literature
This year marks Russian writer Anton Chekhov’s death centenary. Aseem K. Jha looks at his pioneering contribution
ANTON Chekhov’s portrayal of pre-Revolution Russia was so vivid and graphic that it earned him the distinction of a realist who depicted a slice of life with an engaging authenticity.

Hindi review
Sensitive storyteller
Harbans Singh
Tab Shayad: A Collection of Short Stories
by Madhur Kapila.
Shilalekh. Rs 150. Pages 200
A familiar name and face in the world of art and culture, Madhur Kapila has presented another bouquet of short stories to her readers. Having spent more than two decades as a freelance journalist, bridging the gap between creative artists and the readers, she draws heavily upon her world for the subjects of her stories. However, the situations and characters, the apprehensions and conflicts, ambitions and the overwhelming despair that she weaves could be from any urban milieu of the country. Thus, much of what is found in this collection is a storyteller’s urban sensitivity and truth.

Doctors at large
Deepti Laroia
In the Pink of Wealth
by Sumit Ghoshal. Frog Books. Pages 161. Rs 180.
Writing about the lives of doctors is fairly popular with authors and movie and tele-serial makers. But often the only thing medical about such writing is the fact that the protagonists wear stainless white coats and hang the mandatory stethoscope round their necks to create the ‘doctor effect’. Though once in a while they do remember to pay a visit to their wards, yet primarily the plot revolves around their private affairs, intrigues, scandals, et. al.

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