On the shelf

Madness it was in 1947 when a train full of butchered bodies arrived in a small village in Punjab, forever shattering the peace of the Muslim and Sikh communities living there.

Madness it was in 1947 when a town on the border was gripped by communal frenzy and Nathu’s small world came crashing down. Tamas is based on Sahni’s own experience of riots in Rawalpindi.

Madness it is that runs through 11 short stories from the irrepressible Manto, who sketches the era’s perpetrators and victims and also the unlikely heroes of the troubled times.

— Puja Birla

Goodbye Tsugumi
By Banana Yoshimoto

It’s clearly an attempt to capture the Kitchen magic. Ever since that book first appeared in English translation in the mid-nineties Banana has retained her cult status well beyond her native Japan. Many subsequent works of fiction are proof of her evolution as a writer, but it’s to Kitchen alone that millions keep returning. Her publishers have caught on. This novel, first published in 1989 but only now available in English, has whiffs of the old Banana.

Two cousins spend a last summer in their seaside town, Maria, the narrator, always alert to Tsugumi’s frail health and nasty temper. The slimness of the novel may appear to be matched by the slimness of the plot, but Goodbye Tsugumi has its moments.

— Mini Kapoor