Published by Mariner Books / Harper Perennial / Picador, 2004, 400 pages. Rory Stewart had set out to walk from Iran all the way to Nepal—through Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. But in December 2000, when the Iranian government took away his visa, the Taliban refused to allow him to enter Afghanistan. So Stewart had to …
Category: Non-Fiction
32 Yolks—From My Mother’s Table to Working the Line: Eric Ripert
With Veronica ChambersPublished by Random House, 2017, 256 pages. “Only if you cook what you love and truly understand will people be happy with your food.” Good food—how it can sustain you, both physically and emotionally—is the centre of these memoirs. Eric Ripert, a well-known chef, writes about growing up in France and Andorra, and …
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A Broken Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen’s Secret Chord—Liel Leibovitz
Published by Sandstone Press, 2014, 256 pages. “Lots of writers have dared walk up to the edge of reason and stare into that great chasm, into the abyss. Very few people have got there and laughed out loud at what they saw. It’s the divine comedy.” —Bono, on Leonard Cohen You either love or hate …
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The Lights of Pointe-Noire: Alain Mabanckou
Translated from French by Helen StevensonPublished by Serpent's Tail, 2015, 280 pages. Original version published in 2014. Alain Mabanckou left Congo in 1989, when he was 22, and didn’t go back for 23 years, not even when his mother died. Refusing to accept her death, he keeps up the myth that she is alive and …
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Abburi Chayadevi (1933-2019): A writer who never stopped asking questions
Review by Sadhana RamchanderPublished by Saptaparni, 2017, 72 pages. In 2016, when Anuradha Gunupati and I met 83-year old Abburi Chayadevi to tell her about our plans to publish a book on her writing and craft, she asked, “Why do we need this book? I am already suffering from fame.” I was delighted to find …
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Going to the Movies: A Personal Journey Through Four Decades of Modern Film—Syd Field
Published by Bantam Dell, 2001, 336 pages. What makes a movie great? Why are some movies memorable while others disappear into obscurity? The foundation underlying the performances and the directing is the screenplay. A screenplay can make or break a film. Going to the Movies is a combination of memoirs and a lesson on the …
The Owl Who Liked Sitting on Caesar: Life with an Enchanting Tawny Owl—Martin Windrow
Published by Picador / Farrar, Straus and Giroux / Bantam Press, 2014, 320 pages. “Shaving is tricky with an owl on your right shoulder.” Especially when the owl sees it as a game, pecking at the razor at the end of each stroke and trying to eat the shaving cream. Meet Mumble, the Tawny Owl …
Three Ways to Capsize a Boat: An Optimist Afloat—Chris Stewart
Published by Sort Of Books, 2009, 180 pages. It all began when Chris Stewart, 29 and out of work, bumps into a friend. “My great-aunt Jane has been on at me for weeks to find her a skipper [for her yacht], and I thought of you straightaway.” Which was a little odd because Stewart had …
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Daemon Voices: Essays on Storytelling—Philip Pullman
Published by Alfred A. Knopf / David Fickling Books, 2019, 455 pages. “[T]he image of the reader is solitary. We are each alone when we enter the borderland and go on to explore what lies in it and beyond it, in the book we’re engaged with. True, we can come back and and talk about …
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Frida Folk: Gaby Franger
Review by Sadhana Ramchander Book translated from German by Gita WolfPublished by Tara Books, 2018, 192 pages. Original version published in 2018. Frida Folk celebrates, in an unusual manner, the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, and her many ‘avatars’. This is indeed a fascinating book! It documents an unbelievable variety of interpretations of Frida—the woman and …
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