-
KR Meera’s Qabar: to be lonely, unpredictable, and human.
In K.R. Meera’s Qabar (translated by Nisha Susan), the protagonists are embroiled in a lawsuit regarding the preservation of a Qabar (grave). The respondents in the suit want to build an auditorium– its five toilets in particular– over it. At its core, Qabar is a story about loneliness. The sorrow that a yearning for attachment…
-
A list from memory:
Here we are, reader, at the end of a year that taught us many things, most importantly perhaps about the lesson of time. Both its reality and its fantastical qualities. At its most persevering moments, time is glacial and slow and extremely painful because it demands of us what we feel most restless about: trust.…
-
Cities in Books
This is a sample of the city-related books I have read this year. While I have reviewed Amita Baviskar’s Uncivity City in detail for the LSE Review of Books (link here), regarding the others, I have only been able to write about in snatches. With the exception of Shanta Gokhale’s Shivaji Nagar, however, I have…
-
Book Review: “A Meal in Winter” by Hubert Mingarelli (trans. Sam Taylor)
A review on GoodReads describes “A Meal in Winter” as a book that tests the “limits of fiction” —- is it easier to carry on with our lives and continue “loathing them and everything they stood for?” Why imagine? Why put ourselves in the shoes of three German soldiers who have been ordered to “capture”…
-
Book Review: “Untold Night and Day” by Bae Suah (trans. Deborah Smith)
First published in Korea in 2013 and recently translated into English by Deborah Smith, “Untold Night and Day” (translated by Deborah Smith) is Bae Suah’s phantasmagoric dream-like novel. From the moment you step into “Untold Night and Day” you are sequestered into a kind of strangeness, one where reality is splintered and particulate. “Un-told” is…
-
Subscribe
Subscribed
Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
square haunting 