Published by Vintage, 2005, 228 pages. “My past, or lack of it, had caught up with me. I’d been bogged down in the same place for too long, trapped by habits and memories. I was clotted with rootedness. And in the end I’d fallen ill and run out of words. My Irish grandfather, a day-worker …
Author: suroor alikhan
I have always been an avid reader. I read across genres and try and find books by writers from countries around the world. One of the things I love is talking to fellow readers about books!
Reflecting Argentinian Society: An Interview with Claudia Piñeiro
(Note: This interview was originally conducted in Spanish and translated by Leslie Jones.Lea aquí la versión en español.) Claudia Piñeiro is an Argentinian author and scriptwriter. One of her best-known books is Las Viudas de los Jueves (2005, published in English as Thursday Night Widows, 2009), which was made into a film in 2009 and …
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A Book of Days: Patti Smith
Published by Bloomsbury, 2022, 386 pages. This is a book that keeps giving. The multi-talented Patti Smith—singer, songwriter, photographer, author, painter—has put together a collection of photographs (most of them taken by Smith with her 250 Land Camera), one for each day of the year. This book came from her Instagram account, which she started …
Cloud Cuckoo Land: Anthony Doerr
Published by 4th Estate, 2021, 577 pages. “Maybe in the old days men did walk the earth as beasts, and a city of birds floated in the heavens between the realms of men and gods. Or maybe, like all lunatics, the shepherd made his own truth, and so for him, true it was.” “‘I know …
The House of Doors: Tan Twan Eng
Published by Canongate, 2023, 306 pages. British Malaya, 1921. The writer William Somerset Maugham (referred to in the book as Willie) is staying with his old friend Robert Hamlyn and his wife Lesley. Willie is going through a difficult time: his writer’s block is compounded by the fact that he has just learned that he …
The Gift of Books
Photo: Hillaire via Flickr “Prose fiction is something you build up from 26 letters and a handful of punctuation marks, and you, and you alone, using your imagination, create a world and people it and look out through other eyes. You get to feel things, visit places and worlds you would never otherwise know. You …
The Education of Yuri: Jerry Pinto
Published by Speaking Tiger, 2022, 403 pages.Review by Rishad Patell and Suroor Alikhan The following is a combination of Rishad's and Suroor's reviews of The Education of Yuri, differentiated by typeface. This delightful coming-of-age story by Jerry Pinto is a must-read for anyone who grew up in Bombay or has any relation to the …
The Winter Spirits—Ghostly Tales for Frosty Nights
Authors: Kiran Millwood Hargrave, Laura Shepherd-Robinson, Andrew Michael Hurley, Imogen Hermes Gowar, Natasha Pulley, Elizabeth Macneal, Bridget Collins, Stuart Turton, Jess Kidd, Catriona Ward, Susan Stokes-Chapman, Laura PurcellPublished by Sphere, 2023, 464 pages. Twelve gifts for the twelve days of Christmas as the song goes, but there are no pipers piping, ladies dancing or a …
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The Best Books of 2023
Photo: Yulia Grigoryeva via Shutterstock The year 2023 is almost at an end—where did it go? But the community of readers always seem to find time to read—or to listen to books. So, as always, my request for the best books you read this year has yielded a long and varied list. There are overlaps. …
Wild Coast—Travels on South America’s Untamed Edge: John Gimlette
Published by Profile Books, 2011, 384 pages.Review by Rishad Patell A difficult book to review. On one hand, John Gimlette’s book on the northern coast of South America provides a great deal of insight into the countries of Guyana and Suriname and the French department of French Guiana. Often ignored in travel writing and rarely …
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Talking About Books 