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Beware of the dragon
I. Ramamohan Rao
Dragon’s Shadow over
Arunachal
by R.D. Pradhan.
Rupa.
Pages 192. Rs 395.
IN
March this year, the Tibetans in India observed the 50th year of the
escape of the Dalai Lama from Tibet following the Chinese occupation of
Tibet. They expressed the hope that the Tibetans, who are presently
living in their homeland, would be able to live in peace and freedom.
Outsider’s view
Anne Penketh
Khomeini’s Ghost
by Con Coughlin.
Macmillan.
Pages 370. £ 25.
THIS
is the year of Iran: 30 years on from the Iranian revolution, the eyes
of the West are once more on Tehran as Barack Obama promises a new
approach in America’s dealings with the mullahs if they "unclench
their fist". Watershed elections are scheduled for later this year,
in which Iranians may turn their backs on the radical president, Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad, who has done so much to poison his country’s relations
with the West.
Contemporary
gay voices
Aradhika Sharma
Whistling in the Dark:
Twenty-one Queer Interviews
Eds R. Raj Rao and Dibyajyoti Sarma.
Sage.
Rs 375. Pages 264.
THERE
haven’t been too many books, documenting the real issues and lives of
gays in India. One of the first anthologies was Yaarana,
published by Penguin India in 1999.
Vivid
picture of the Raj
Kavita Soni-Sharma
Chinnery’s Hotel
by Jaysinh Birjepatil.
Penguin.
Pages 261. Rs 325.
THE
Baroda-born professor of English has described the experiences of the
Anglo-Indian community in the last days of the British Raj with a deep
sensitivity. Chinnery’s Hotel is set in the cantonment of Mhow
in Indore district of Madhya Pradesh with all the seductions of solitude
and silence.
Focus
on plight of women
Shalini Rawat
Displaced by Development:
Confronting
Marginalisation and Gender Injustice
Ed. Lyla Mehta.
Sage.
Pages 309. Rs 695.
I expect women will be the last
thing civilised by man. —
George Meredith
BOTH
nature and woman have refused to fall in line with man’s ideals.
Man’s agenda of ‘civilising’ the world involves, in a large part,
cutting down forests, building large dams and exploiting natural
resources in the process—to all of which, women have put up stiff
resistance.
Comedy
of manners
Christopher Fowler
Their Finest Hour and a Half
by Lissa Evans.
Doubleday.
Pages 416. £14.99.
IT’S
hard to write amusing fiction about film production; the lassitude of
shooting is too familiar, the compromises are too easily parodied.
Equally tricky is the creation of comedy from civilians in wartime.
The
meltdown boost
This is a bumper year for
crisis-related books at the Paris fair, writes Estelle
Shirbon
TIP
for aspiring writers: if it’s about the economic crisis, it sells.
Publishers at the annual Paris book fair said readers were queuing up
for books explaining the credit crunch, proposing alternative economic
models or just offering advice on how to live more cheaply.
Arabic
‘Booker’ for Ziedan’s book
Egyptian
writer and scholar Youssef Ziedan won the International Prize for Arabic
Fiction last week Azazeel (Beelzebub), his best-selling
novel, which angered the Egyptian Coptic Church.
SHORT TAKES
Adventures of a squirrel
Randeep Wadehra
Zapp: The Squirrel Who Wanted To Fly
by Rachit Kinger.
Wisdom Tree.
Pages 115. $ 7.95.
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