Thaindian News

New Delhi, June 9 (IANS) The bookshelf this weekend is exciting with new titles by the Turks of story-telling.

1. “River of Smoke”; Written by Amitav Ghosh; Published by Penguin India; Price: Rs.699

The book is the second of the award-winning writer’s Ibis trilogy which began with the “Sea of Poppies”. In September 1838 a storm blows up on the Indian Ocean and the Ibis, a ship carrying a consignment of convicts and indentured labourers from Calcutta to Mauritius, is caught up in the whirlwind.

When the seas settle, five men have disappeared. Did the same storm upend the fortunes of those aboard the Anahita, an opium carrier heading towards Canton? And what fate befell those aboard the Redruth, a sturdy two-masted brig heading East out of
Cornwall? Was it the storm that altered their course or were the destinies of these passengers at the mercy of even more powerful forces?

2. “Last Man in Tower”; Written by Aravind Adiga; Published by HarperCollins-India; Price: Rs.699

Ask any Bombaywallah about Tower A of the Vishram Co-operative Housing Society and you will be told that it is unimpeachably “pucca”. But Bombay has changed in half a century - not least its name - and the world in which Tower A was first built is giving way to a new city, a Mumbai of new development and new money.

When real estate developer Dharmen Shah offers to buy out the residents of Vishram Society to build a luxury apartment complex, his offer is more than generous. Yet not everyone wants to leave; many of them have lived in Vishram for years.

As tensions rise, one by one those who oppose the offer give in to the pressure of the majority, until only one man stands in the way of Shah’s luxury high-rise: Masterji, a retired schoolteacher, once the most respected man in the building. And Shah is a dangerous man to refuse.

3. “Bhagwad Gita”; Translated by Mani Rao; Published by Penguin-India; Price: Rs.250

In this new translation of the Gita, poet Mani Rao cuts past conventions and uses space and language innovatively to deliver an experience of immediacy for the reader. At the same time, she adheres strictly to the meaning of the original and is sensitive to the
nuances of the Sanskrit original with all its wordplay and texture. It is aimed to reach out to young readers.

4. “Invisible Lines”; Written by Ruby Zaman; Published by Harper-Collins India; Price: RS.299

Zebunnessa Rahim was born in East Pakistan to a Bihari father and a Sylheti mother. She grows up in a sheltered world, sneaking behind her parents’ backs to meet her half-Scottish lover, gazing enviously at her friends dancing at parties in their tight outfits and enjoying summers eating mangoes at her politician grandfather’s villa.

Until 1971, when her life collapses and she becomes at once a victim of both sides, the West Pakistani soldiers and the East Bengali freedom fighters. Homes turn into refugee camps. Lovers are separated by the different languages they speak.

A father gives up in despair while his son fights for independence. When victory comes at last after nine long months of fighting, it brings with it a host of unanticipated
problems - of adjustment, of acceptance and, for young Zeb, a new national identity.

5. “Adultery and Other Stories”; Written by Farrukh Dhondy; Published by HarperCollins-India; Price: Rs.299

An aging and unsuccessful poet whose life and literary views have been overtaken by rap artists, celebrity-hungry American students, Indian archaeologists and other hustlers. His patient and abandoned wife who sets out on her voyage of discovery. London’s Indian gigolos and their American victims or predators.

A small-town mathematics-teacher-turned-cheese-impresario. An Englishman - waiting for a transplant that would enable him to start a family - exchanging desperate e-mails with a prospective donor’s relative. As these disparate elements come together in a delightful mix, there is a tragedy - of good intentions, in monumental proportions.