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Literature of hope and survival
Reviewed by Shelly Walia
Silent House By Orhan
Pamuk.
Hamish Hamilton, London. Pages 334. Rs 599.
orhan
Pamuk’s second novel Silent House was published in Turkey in
1983 and now, finally, translated into English by Robert Finn. The
novel is situated in early 1980. The military coup is around the
corner. The locale is a fishing village Cennethisar some miles from
Istanbul where Fatima, a 90-year-old widow has spent her old age
recapitulating her past so profoundly entangled with the political
exile of her husband and the history of Turkey.
Terror looms, peace
prevails
Reviewed by Vikrant
Parmar
Breath of Death By Saad
Shafqat.
Chlorophyll. Pages: 255 Rs 245.
Intense…is
the first word that comes to mind as one scrambles — thanks to the
racy plot and compelling suspense — through the pages of Saad
Shafqat’s debut novel Breath of Death. Set in the busy and
bustling city of Karachi in Pakistan, the novel explores the dark
underbelly of the world of terror.
A tale of identity
crisis
Reviewed by Kanwalpreet
Stealing Nasreen By
Farzana Doctor Rupa.
Pages 305. Rs 295.
The
need to explore the unknown and be a part of the change is inherent in
human beings yet there are only a few who dare to do so. Though ,
recently the number of this tribe is on the rise. This is the theme of
Farzana Doctor’s novel where she explores relationships through her
protagonists, Nasreen, Shaffiq and Salma. Set in Toronto, Canada, the
lives of all three are intertwined in a situation not of their choice.
Treading the terrain
of faith and liberation
Reviewed by Harbans
Singh
The World of Fatwas or the
Shariah in action
By Arun Shourie Harper Collins. Pages 768. Rs 699.
There
is absolutely no doubt that Arun Shourie, the journalist, politician
and the thinker, has done an exhaustive study of all aspects of Islam
down the centuries before writing The World of Fatwas. In doing
so he is aware of the possibility that some readers would be
‘angered or embarrassed at encountering this material’ but urges
them to compare it to the material in original.
Miniature of human
life
Reviewed by Kanchan
Mehta
Early Indications By G B
Prabhat.
Gyaana Books. Pages 312. Rs 315.
It
is a linear, racy, engaging, rich in literary and philosophical
references, narrative of ups and downs, expansions and contractions,
twists and turns in narrator, Shiva’s relationship with his four
friends. It is set against the framework of academic life.
Anti-hero's antics
Journey to the End of the
Night
By Louis-Ferdinand Céline Alma Classics £9.99.
Céline's
novel was a huge commercial hit when it first appeared in 1932, but
few probably read him today. If Parade's End is a chronicle of the
First World War by a Tory modernist, then this is an account of the
same subject by a cross between Henry Miller and Jack Kerouac.
Rescuing her homeland
Greekonomics: The Euro Crisis
and Why Politicians Don't Get It,
By Vicky Pryce Biteback £12.99.
Given
the politicians' endorsements on the cover of her book, it's possible
that they do get it, but Pryce, a Greek-born economist, does an
admirable job of rescuing her homeland from the scurrilous portraits
of it that have recently dominated the press.
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