Since his boyhood in a poor village in Central Anatolia, Mevlut Karatas has fantasized about what his life would become. Not getting as far in school as he’d hoped, at the age of twelve he comes to Istanbul—”the center of the world”—and is immediately enthralled by both the old city that is disappearing and the new one that is fast being built. He follows his father’s trade, selling boza (a traditional, mildly alcoholic Turkish drink) on the street, hoping to become rich like the other villagers who have settled on the desolate hills outside the booming metropolis. But luck never seems to be on Mevlut’s side. He spends three years writing love letters to a girl he saw just once at a wedding, only to elope by mistake with her sister. And though he grows to cherish his wife and the family they have, he stumbles toward middle age in a series of jobs leading nowhere. His sense of missing something leads him sometimes to the politics of his friends and intermittently to the teachings of a charismatic religious guide. But every evening, without fail, Mevlut still wanders the streets of Istanbul, selling boza and wondering at the “strangeness” in his mind, the sensation that makes him feel different from everyone else, until fortune conspires once more to let him understand at last what it is he has always yearned for.
Told from different perspectives by a host of beguiling characters, a Strangeness in My Mind is a modern epic of coming of age in a great city, a brilliant tableau of life among the newcomers who have changed the face of Istanbul over the past fifty years. Here is a mesmerizing story of human longing, sure to take its place among Pamuk’s finest achievements.
As he investigates the mysterious disappearance of his wife and a popular newspaper columnist, Celâl, Galip finds himself assuming the enviable Celâl’s identity, wearing his clothes, answering his phone calls, even writing his columns.
With its cascade of beguiling stories about Istanbul, The Black Book is a brilliantly unconventional mystery, and a provocative meditation on identity.
A sprawling, extravagant saga, Raj is at heart the story of Maharani Jaya Singh. Spanning nearly half a century, the novel takes in its sweep both Jaya’s coming of age as the ruler of her state, Balmer, as well as the drama of India’s struggle for independence. Powerful, enlightening and compulsively readable, Raj is one of the great historical novels of our time.
Two lovers are destined to meet in the city of Srinagar. Roohi is a beautiful,spirited girl who is haunted by dreams of a mysterious man she believes is hertrue love. Faiz is a young papier mâché artist on the cusp of painting his masterpiece,the Falaknuma. When fate conspires to bring them together on one windsweptevening, both fall irrevocably in love.But it is 1991. Kashmir is simmering with political strife, and it is only a matter of timebefore Srinagar is engulfed in the gathering storm. Before they know it, the city they callhome erupts in violence, threatening everything that the two lovers hold dear.An ageold tale of love, war, duty and choice, The Book of Gold Leaves is as devastatinglyresonant as it is beautifully written.
Buried resentments, unexpected disappointments, new friendships, small acts of cruelty, journeys that take you back to where you started. With trademark compassion and tender irony, Anita Desai’s short stories give us familiar worlds made unfamiliar, to wonderful effect.
An ageing couple is stranded in a stultifying Delhi summer by the visit of a roguish old Oxford friend, who trades on his charm; an American woman turns to hippies living in the Indian hills, homesick for the farmlands of Vermont; a dog terrorizes the neighbourhood but is cherished by his stern master; a Delhi girl of slender means finds a new kind of freedom with her young friends, in her barsati home; a peaceful game of hide and seek turns into a nightmare; a businessman sees his own death.
In one masterly volume, for the first time ever, here are Anita Desai’s collected stories —including Diamond Dust and Games at Twilight.
‘One of the best young writers of India’-Indian Express
‘One of the finest contemporary Malayalam writers’-Mint
In a café by the seaside, two friends, Christy Andrapper and Jesintha, witness the murder of a young man. When Christy discovers that it was Senthil, his classmate from school, who had been shot, he tries to follow up on the investigation. But the police deny such a crime ever took place. The hospital to which Senthil’s body was delivered insists he died of a heart attack.
Christy begins to suspect a conspiracy. Was he caught in the middle of a giant cover-up? How was his powerful family connected with it? As the mystery deepens, the story moves back and forth between the archipelago of Diego Garcia and peninsular India, delving into the very heart of early Christianity in India.
After the success and acclaim of Goat Days, Benyamin crafts a clever and absorbing crime-novel-within-a-novel that is dazzlingly inventive and hugely enjoyable.
WINNER OF THE SAHITYA AKADEMI AWARD 2018
WINNER OF THE RAYMOND CROSSWORD BOOK AWARD FOR BEST FICTION 2014
Born to silently warring parents, Amar Hamsa grows up in a crumbling house called the Bungalow, anticipating tragedies and ignominies. True to his dark premonitions, bad luck soon starts cascading into his life. At twenty-six, he decides to narrate his story to an imaginary audience, and skeletons tumble out of every cupboard in the Bungalow.
The Blind Lady’s Descendants is an utterly compelling and haunting family saga, brimming with intense heartache and wry humour, confirming Anees Salim’s reputation as one of our most outstanding storytellers.
The Blind Lady’s Descendants is an utterly compelling and haunting family saga, brimming with intense heartache and wry humour, that confirms Anees Salim as one of our most gifted storytellers.
It’s very hard to be a good daughter.
Meet Sarah. She is a seventeen-year-old girl from a conservative urban family. Sarah has to do all the chores of the house, keep her family members happy and her reputation clean so that people don’t gossip about her, and always look good so that she can be the ideal candidate for the rishtas that come her way. All this really upsets Sarah, but being the Pakistani obedient daughter, Sarah can only suppress her anger. However, this time Sarah’s patience has run out and she cannot hold in her indignation any longer.
He was the guru of Bhishma Pitamah…
He was the avatar of Vishnu but a disciple of Shiva…
And He shall be the martial guru of Kalki, the last Avatar in this Yuga!
When the Chandravanshi emperor Arjun began expanding his empire to the entire world, the Asuras hit back with an insidious plan. Caught in the crossfire is Raam, who comes back from his penance tofind 21 arrows piercing his father’s body. Raam vows to avenge his death by killing the evil Kshatriyas 21 times starting with Arjun.
Thus begins The Legend of Parshuram.
Widely recognised as a prominent, contemporary poet, Sudeep Sen seeks to push the boundaries of the written word with his new work, Erotext. Filled with short, gripping pieces of poetry under the five heads of desire, disease, delusion, dream and downpour, Sudeep shows us that an endless stream of words isn’t required to speak volumes. Displaying his mastery over metre and the barely controlled power of the compact lines, the poetry is intense, moving, captivating and leaves the reader wanting more. Speaking of love, pain, longing, desire, darkness and much more, this collection is a true reflection of contemporary poetry.
