Books
Barnali Chattopadhyay: “When I sing Sufiana kalaam, I forget my gender”
Updated on May 05, 2025 03:32 PM IST
The Hindustani classical exponent on singing the poetry of Amir Khusrau and singing playback for Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Heeramandi
HT Picks; New Reads
This week’s pick of interesting reads includes a courageous memoir that looks squarely at loss and death, the story of an ancient language that changed the world, and a reissued novel about a fragile love story that presents an insight into a woman’s psychology and soul
Updated on May 02, 2025 10:58 PM IST
HT Team
Abhay K: “Nalanda was an international melting pot where scholars flocked”
The diplomat and author, ‘Nalanda: How It Changed the World’, on the ancient monastery-university that nurtured scholars who contributed to Buddhist philosophy and Sanskrit grammar and transformed the social, economic, political, religious and cultural landscape of Asia
Published on May 02, 2025 10:56 PM IST
Review: The Company of Violent Men by Siddharthya Roy
Refugees and small-time wheeler-dealers go about their lives amid a vortex of conflict and dispossession in a book that is also a behind-the-scenes account of journalism
Updated on May 02, 2025 10:53 PM IST
Syed Saad Ahmed
The dynasty of the living dead
‘The House of Awadh: A Hidden Tragedy’ on the former residents of a medieval hunting lodge in the middle of the Delhi Ridge finds that they were indeed descendants of Wajid Ali Shah. Authors Abhimanyu Kumar and Aletta André talk about the family’s sad life marred by displacement and madness
Updated on May 02, 2025 10:47 PM IST
Saudamini Jain
Creativity, censorship and clever camouflage
The Dramatic Performances Act of 1876 was enacted to quell the expression of anti-colonial sentiment.
Published on May 02, 2025 03:07 PM IST
Mallika Ravikumar
Page to screen: On Queer, desire and disembodiment
There is no tenderness in ‘Queer’ by William S Burroughs. Luca Guadagnino’s film adaptation, however, is injected with sentiment and sensuality
Published on May 02, 2025 06:11 AM IST
Review: The Deras by Santosh K Singh
A study of independent religious congregations that greatly influence the character and politics of contemporary Punjab
Published on May 01, 2025 10:39 PM IST
Sudhirendar Sharma
Kishore Mahbubani: “India will have to engage the rest of the world more”
The author of ‘Living the Asian Century’ on overcoming his deprived childhood, Singapore’s secret MPH formula, his diplomatic career and his Sindhi roots
Published on Apr 30, 2025 05:02 PM IST
Saaz Aggarwal
Review: Mithu UnMyth Sen
A lavishly produced retrospective book presented like a live-art performance looks at Mithu Sen’s wide-ranging artistic oeuvre
Published on Apr 29, 2025 01:14 PM IST
Sudeep Sen
Eliot Stein: “We’re becoming a more homogenous species”
The author of ‘Custodians of Wonder’ on how the world loses its diverse nature when the keepers of culture disappear and localism gives way to internationalism
Updated on Apr 28, 2025 04:08 PM IST
Teja Lele
Book Review: Author Adichie paints grief through immigrant lives, in Dream Count
Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's new novel, Dream Count is a realistic portrayal of immigrant women's lives during the isolating time of the pandemic.
Published on Apr 26, 2025 09:36 AM IST
Aadrika Sominder
HT Picks; New Reads
This week’s pick of interesting reads includes a book on an important former princely state’s past and future, a thrilling first-person account of the perils of being a maritime officer, and a volume on the stunning works of Indian artists patronised by employees of foreign trading companies in the 18th and early 19th centuries
Published on Apr 26, 2025 06:46 AM IST
HT Team
Bena Sareen: “Every book is a new challenge”
Sociology grad turned book designer Bena Sareen discusses her creative process, influence of minimalism, and evolution of book design in India.
Review: Myth, Memory & Folktale of the Wancho Tribe of Arunachal Pradesh by Tara Douglas and Jatwang Wangsa
Stories featuring magical stones, flying foxes and doomed love, among other elements that delight and surprise the reader, reveal the thoughts and value system of the Wancho tribe
Published on Apr 26, 2025 06:40 AM IST
Priyanka Sarkar
Abdulrazak Gurnah: “Silence can also be vocal”
On dramatic irony in his writing, Chekhov’s gun, how tourism blights smaller places, and ‘Theft’, his first novel since winning the Nobel Prize in 2021
Published on Apr 26, 2025 06:34 AM IST
Review: Reservoir Bitches by Dahlia de la Cerda
It is a set of linked narratives of 13 women in Mexico that looks at the common villains of misogyny and patriarchy.
Updated on Apr 25, 2025 06:36 PM IST
Rahul Singh
Review: Hope; The Autobiography by Pope Francis
The memoir – a first by a sitting pope – underscores why he spoke with so much empathy on issues like climate change and the refugee crisis
Published on Apr 24, 2025 02:25 PM IST
Review: Cities Rethought by Gautam Bhan, Michael Keith et al
Four scholars of urban studies highlight the need for ‘a new urban disposition’ in the particularly volatile contemporary world
Published on Apr 24, 2025 02:06 PM IST
Simar Bhasin
Essay: The library as a safe space
On World Book Day, a look at why good libraries are essential to spark the imagination of a child and strengthen their intellect
Published on Apr 23, 2025 02:45 PM IST
James Bradley: “The ocean shapes the world”
On global capitalism and shipping as its engine, deep sea mining, the climate crisis and ‘Deep Water’, his work looks at how humans live with the oceans
Published on Apr 22, 2025 05:40 PM IST
Book Review: Dream Girl Drama is a rom-com, passionate read? Yes! Riveting? Ahem
Author Tessa Bailey has attempted to pen an engaging and passionate story of two strangers who encounter and live a dreamy meet-cute narrative.
Published on Apr 22, 2025 04:53 PM IST
Yashika Mathur
HT Picks; New Reads
On the reading list this week is a collection of short fiction shot through with wry humour, leaves from a writer’s journal, and a look at the state of Myanmar where the army and anti-coup groups are at loggerheads
Published on Apr 19, 2025 06:46 AM IST
HT Team
Yaroslav Trofimov: “I’m a Soviet melting pot”
Journalism honed my narrative skills for writing about Ukraine's history and conflict, blending fact with character depth in my novels.
Updated on Apr 19, 2025 06:40 AM IST
Review: The Viceroy’s Artist by Anindyo Roy
The novel, based on Edward Lear’s journal, successfully brings to life the English nonsense poet’s year-long sojourn in India
Published on Apr 19, 2025 06:39 AM IST
Lamat R Hasan
Review: How I Write by Sonia Faleiro
A collection of interviews with South Asian writers grappling with storytelling in a world hostile to truth
Published on Apr 19, 2025 06:30 AM IST
Tales of patriarchy and puzzlement
The winning entries at the most recent edition of the Mozhi Prize awards draw the reader in and fill them with optimism about the form
Updated on Apr 18, 2025 04:09 PM IST
Suhit Bombaywala
A Complete Unknown: When Bob Dylan plugged in
James Mangold’s A Complete Unknown doesn’t look to decode Dylan’s genius but echoes what it must have felt like to populate his orbit
Updated on Apr 18, 2025 06:47 AM IST
Review: Peacocks of Instagram by Deepa Rajagopalan
These 14 interconnected stories set in Kerala and Canada probe motivations, highlight conundrums and explore where desire and diaspora collide
Published on Apr 17, 2025 08:33 PM IST
Taking the Tolkien trail in Birmingham
JRR Tolkien, author of The Lord of the Rings, laid the foundation of his fantasy world in Britain’s second city, where he grew up
Published on Apr 16, 2025 10:38 AM IST
Teja Lele