New Delhi, May 5 (IANS) The book cart this weekend beckons the reader, who loves a good story…Browse with IANS.
1. Book: ‘The Householder’; Written by Amitabha Bagchi; Published by Harper-Collins India; Priced at Rs.399
Naresh Kumar, PA to Shri R.K. Asthana, IAS, is his boss’ doorkeeper. There is a share for Naresh in the bounties that flow in through that door, and there has been for years. But he is a man besieged. His married daughter is having trouble conceiving, his son’s call centre job might be a cover for something murkier, and his wife expects him to solve these problems. Then there is Pinki Kaur, a colleague and his friend’s widow, whose presence in the office stirs responses in him that he can neither submit to nor suppress. Distracted by personal crises, he misses the signs of political trouble brewing at work, and so it is that Naresh finds himself suspended from his job. Unseated from the desk that has been the source of his power and well-being, he must still struggle to make things right for his family: Naresh is, after all, a householder.
2. Book: ‘The Moslems Are Coming: Encounters With a Desktop Terrorist’; Written by Azad Essa; Published by Harper-Collins India; Priced at Rs.299
Azad Essa, a young South African journalist with a wicked sense of humour, offers his take on world politics, tracks a changing world, tackles race and religion head-on, gives fresh insight into the Israel-Palestine conflict, casts new light on old stereotypes, vents the frustrations and fears of the next generation – and ultimately offers us hope for the future. He doesn’t drink but he is not scared of a pub. He paints himself as a cartoon in a world of contradictions; has seen India better and Pakistan than many and has a satirical opinion of the conflict – and a solution.
3. Book: ‘A Godly Blunder’; Written by Parimal Kalikar; Published by Rupa & Co; Priced at Rs.146
A German man learns the meaning of terms such as ‘load-shedding’, ‘ghoos’ and ‘kharra’ the hard way. Oliver, a quality control manager in a premium car company in Germany, dies in an accident and reaches heaven. He is enjoying the lavish lifestyle of a movie star…till God decides to send him on a short ‘assignment’ due to a technical snag in the Soul Management System (SMS) of Swarga. He wakes up in the body of an Indian middle-class man Siddhesh. Thus starts his roller-coaster journey to India. He is baffled by the extent of corruption and dishonesty in the country as much as he is warmed by the affection that binds Indian families. To add to his woes, his two maverick escorts from Swarga keep disappearing without notice. What happens at the end of this unusual assignment? What happens when God tells you that you don’t need him? A Godly Blunder is a hilarious ride to heaven and back to earth.
4. Book: ‘Hour of the Wolf’; Written by Hakan Nesser; Published by Pan Macmillan; Priced at pounds 16.99 (Rs.1,467)
In the dead of night, in the pouring rain, a drunk driver smashes his car into a young man. He abandons the body at the side of the road, but the incident will set in motion a chain of events which will change his life forever. Soon Chief Inspector Van Veeteren, now retired from the Maardam police force, will face his greatest trial yet as someone close to him is, inexplicably, murdered. Van Veeteren’s former colleagues, desperate for answers, struggle to decipher the clues to this appalling crime. But when another body is discovered, it gradually becomes clear that this killer is acting on his own terrifying logic.
5. Book: ‘Jaal’; Written by Sangeeta Bahadur; Published by Pan Macmillan/Picador India; Priced at Rs.299
‘Jaal’ – The Web is the first book of the Kaal Trilogy. The trilogy is set in an imagined world reminiscent of India in the immediate post-Vedic era. Each book of the trilogy outlines a different phase in the highly unusual life of the main protagonist, Arihant, who shoulders an awesome responsibility, the easier part of which is to destroy Aushij, the Lord of Maya, tricked into a Prison of Dreams by his siblings many millennia ago. Confronted with enemies, human and Mayavi, Arihant must also come to terms with the results of choices he has made, and the dizzying, often shocking, unfolding of his own purpose and potential. In the ultimate analysis, it is the idea of the exploration of self – who I am?
