TOMB OF SAND
Winner of the International Booker Prize, Geetanjali Shree’s book, originally written in Hindi, was trans- lated into English by Daisy Rockwell. In northern India, an eighty-year-old woman slips into a deep depression after the death of her husband, and then resurfaces to gain a new lease on life. Rather than respond to tragedy with seriousness, Geetanjali Shree’s playful tone and exuberant wordplay results in a book that is engaging, funny, and utterly original, at the same time as being an urgent and timely protest against the destructive impact of borders and boundaries, whether between religions, countries, or genders. Published by Penguin Random House India.
THE IMMORTAL KING RAO
In an Indian village in the 1950s, a precocious child is born into a family of Dalit coconut farmers. King Rao will grow up to be the most accomplished tech CEO in the world and, eventually, the leader of a global, corporate-led govern- ment. The Immortal King Rao is a resonant debut novel by Vauhini Vara, obliterating the boundaries between literary and speculative fiction, the historic and the dystopian, confronting how we arrived at the age of technological capitalism and where our actions might take us next. Published by Fourth Estate India, HarperCollins India
THE PENGUIN BOOK OF INDIAN POETS
Jeet Thayil has compiled the definitive anthology of Indian poetry in English. This monumental undertaking, two decades in the making, brings together writers from across the world, a wealth of voices — in dialogue, in soliloquy, in rhetoric, and in play — to present an expansive, encompassing idea of what makes an ‘Indian’ poet. Included are lost, uncollected, or out of print poems by major poets, essays that place entire bodies of work into their precise cultural contexts, and a collection of classic black and white portraits by Madhu Kapparath. Published by Penguin Random House India.
PERIOD MATTERS: MENSTRUATION IN SOUTH ASIA
A pathbreaking anthology on the diverse experiences of menstruation in South Asia, edited by Farah Ahamed. Menstruation, despite being a healthy and fundamental bodily process, is a topic often buried in fear and shame, and its discussion is even taboo in many societies. But a worldwide effort to bring conversations about menstruation and menstrual health into the open is now firmly underway. Period Matters carries this important endeavour forward by bringing together a breadth of perspectives from well-known figures as well as those whose voices are missing from the mainstream. Published by Macmillan.
THE PARADISE OF FOOD
Khalid Jawed’s The Paradise of Food is an Urdu classic known for its radical, experimental form and savage and dark honesty. In this profoundly daring work – tense, mysterious, even unfathomable on occasion – Jawed builds an atmosphere of gloom and grotesqueness to draw out his themes. And in doing so he penetrates deep into the dark heart of middle-class Muslims today. Superbly translated by Baran Farooqi, The Paradise of Food was the winner of this year’s JCB Prize for Literature. Published by Juggernaut.
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Date 19-11-2022