Surprisingly little is known about the siege of Kohima, considered a game-changing event that altered the course of world history during the Second World War. His Majesty’s Headhunters adds to our understanding of this battle and shows how it redefined a whole era.
Providing a unique perspective of Nagaland and its warriors, this book uncovers the untold story of the siege, regarded as one of the more celebrated battles of D-Day and often referred to as the ‘Stalingrad of the East’ by Western scholars. Historians even believe that this was the last battle of the British Empire
and the first battle of the ‘New India’.
However, that is just the tale told so far by everyone except the Nagas. The real history of this battle—which involved the Japanese Army, led by Lieutenant General Sato, and the Allied forces—is yet to be recounted. As Lt Gen. Sato is said to have remarked, if it were not for the Naga people, the Allied forces would have been defeated in Kohima, and the Japanese Army would have easily secured the Dimapur railway station and moved victoriously towards Bengal via Assam, thus reversing the outcome of the war.
This rare and deeply researched historical account, drawing on records left by the officers and soldiers who fought in Kohima, is a page-turner. It brings to light the valour and spirit of the Naga ‘headhunters’, who made the supreme sacrifice to protect the honour of their people.
After Kunal’s mother dies, he is sent off to a boarding school in the hills. Till he has a hostel room, he stays with Tara, his father’s cousin, who teaches a special music programme in the school.
Teaching music helped Tara after her best friend died—that, and perhaps the company of the enigmatic figure known as Death, whom she sees everywhere.
Tara and Kunal must try to live together, their lives entwined by their separate losses—which neither is comfortable talking about.
This is a tale of love and loss, of the healing and illuminating power of friendship, art and music.
Imayam is considered one of the most important Tamil writers today and this powerful collection of stories reveals just why that is. Whether he is depicting a lack of political morality in the novella Vazhga Vazhga, questioning whether religion unifies or divides in Tiruneeru Sami, or narrating his unique spin on Samban, a character from one our epics, Imayam’s unsparing gaze on society gently and subtly reveals the inequalities people must live with and navigate.
Beautifully translated by Prabha Sridevan, the stories in this collection are layered, and told with deep empathy and humour.
THE GALLERY pursues the question of what it takes for a woman to stand up for herself, through the intertwined lives of Minal and Ellora Sahni, wife and daughter of a successful New Delhi lawyer, and Maitrye and Tashi, wife
and daughter of the office peon at the Sahni law practice. In her new novel, Manju Kapur brings together themes of independence, identity and womanhood by focusing on a set of principal characters who are connected through work and physical proximity, yet separated by class and power.
As the women navigate their own desires, they are forced to re-examine marriage, as well as to consider the role of art as property, value and self-expression. The titular gallery that Minal opens becomes a powerful symbol of both autonomy and constraint.
Set in Delhi and Nepal, The Gallery surveys the lives of two families over three decades, becoming, in the process, an exploration of sexual freedom and the world of art.
Five terminally ill, troubled teens commit suicide in their hostel rooms locked from inside.
Until one chilling truth reveals: murders.
But how is the killer passing murders as suicides inside locked rooms?
Simone Singh, a feisty CBI investigator struggling with her own mental health, is charged with solving the crimes. But time is running out as more teens start committing ‘suicide’ all over India. As Simone inches closer to the web of deception woven by the cunning killer, little does she know that the hunter is becoming the hunted. Can Simone take down the crafty puppeteer before her own mental demons bring her crashing down?
Riveting and relentlessly paced, The Girl with Broken Dreams will appeal to readers who crave determined heroines, heart-stopping mysteries, and psychological thrillers with a mind-boggling final twist.
Step into the twisted mind of The Girl with the Broken Dreams today!
Children forced out of their homes
Humans discarded as empty shells
A Machine that sucks out Power.
Secrets
More secrets
And still more secrets-
I must fight a government of evil,
destroy the Machine,
and . . . save my mother.
Me, twelve-year-old Rohini.
Ha. Really?
From BookTok sensation Emily McIntire comes a dark and delicious fractured fairy tale reimagining of Peter Pan.
He wants revenge, but he wants her more…
James has always had one agenda: destroy his enemy, Peter Michaels. When Peter’s twenty-year-old daughter Wendy shows up in James’s bar, he sees his way in. Seduce the girl and use her for his revenge. It’s the perfect plan, until things in James’s organization begin to crumble. Suddenly, he has to find the traitor in his midst, and his plan for revenge gets murkier as James starts to see Wendy as more than just a pawn in his game.
Wendy has been cloistered away most of her life by her wealthy cold father, but a spontaneous night out with friends turns into an intense and addictive love affair with the dark and brooding James. As much as she knows James is dangerous, Wendy can’t seem to shake her desire for him. But as their relationship grows more heated and she learns more about the world he moves in, she finds herself unsure if she’s falling for the man known as James or the monster known as Hook.
In ‘The Boundary’, one family vacations in the Roman countryside, though we see their lives through the eyes of the caretaker’s daughter, who nurses a wound from her family’s immigrant past. In ‘P’s Parties’, a Roman couple, now empty nesters, finds comfort and community with foreigners at their friend’s yearly birthday gathering-until the husband crosses a line.
And in ‘The Steps’, on a public staircase that connects two neighbourhoods and the residents who climb up and down it, we see Italy’s capital in all of its social and cultural variegations, filled with the tensions of a changing city: visibility and invisibility, random acts of aggression, the challenge of straddling worlds and cultures, and the meaning of home.
These are splendid, searching stories, written in Jhumpa Lahiri’s adopted language of Italian and seamlessly translated by the author and by Knopf editor Todd Portnowitz.
This mesmerising tale takes you on an enchanting journey to the whale-shaped island of Rodrigues, situated in the middle of the Indian Ocean. In the deep waters of this ocean, Mystic, a wise blue whale, guides her disciple, Lucy, a sea drop, on a spiritual journey.
As Lucy follows Mystic, she learns how to connect with her true self, find inner peace, and overcome obstacles to become a better version of herself. On this magical journey, Lucy meets several unforgettable characters along the way and uncovers the wonders of the underwater world. The Ocean in a Drop is a reminder that wisdom doesn’t solely belong to the human species; it belongs equally to all the living beings and forces of nature.
With spectacular prose and breathtaking imagery, this mystical tale invites readers to explore the depths of their souls and embark on a spiritual voyage that will uplift, inspire, and make them embrace the beauty of life.
Venkat answers urgent knocks on the door to his flat one evening to find two insolent young men claiming to have business with his daughter Rekha. He deals with them shortly, only to find his quiet, middle-class life upended by a bewildering set of events over the next few days.
Even as Venkat is hurled into a world of street gangs and murky journalism, we see a parallel narrative unfold of a betrayal and disappearance from long ago. Could there be a connection? Set over four mostly sleepless days, we see Venkat lose grasp of the narrative even as he loses grasp of his wife and daughter.
Exquisitely translated from the Kannada by Srinath Perur, Sakina’s Kiss is a delicate, precise meditation on the persistence of old biases—and a rattled masculinity—in India’s changing social and political landscape. Ingeniously crafted, Vivek Shanbhag interrogates the space between truth and perception in this unforgettable foray into the minefield of family life.
