Beyond stereotypes: Rupert Grey’s ‘Homage to Bangladesh’

Rupert Grey, a descendant of Charles Grey and best known professionally as a leading libel and copyright lawyer stood against this statement. “If Bangladesh is a basket case,” Grey tells The Daily Star, “then it is so in the best possible way.” For him, the term collapses under the sheer vitality of the country. A single square metre of a Bangladeshi street, he argues, holds more energy than entire neighbourhoods in London. Where life in England often unfolds in rigid routines, Bangladesh thrives in spontaneity—where a hanging lighter at a tea stall can become a moment of shared choreography.
25 January 2026, 12:24 PM Books & Literature
FLASH FICTION / The rickshaw artist
24 January 2026, 01:52 AM Books & Literature
FLASH FICTION / Pirouette of a phoenix
24 January 2026, 01:48 AM Books & Literature
POETRY / Memories
24 January 2026, 01:36 AM Books & Literature

EDITORIAL / Why read?
22 January 2026, 00:00 AM Books & Literature
THE SHELF / 7 new books to look out for in 2026
22 January 2026, 00:00 AM Books & Literature

INTERVIEW / Reclaiming the unwritten: Kanika Gupta on colonialism, embodiment, and the art of remembering

Gupta shares her insights on reclaiming forgotten histories, reimagining myths, and connecting ancient narratives to contemporary ecological and social concerns.
22 November 2025, 11:51 AM Books & Literature
EVENT REPORT / An eco-critical look at Sultan: Reading the manuscript of ‘Sultan Er Krishi Jiggasha’
With the aid of Duniyadari Archive, Pavel Partha’s soon-to-be-published book Sultan Er Krishi Jiggasha is a new addition, which looks at Sultan’s work from an eco-critical perspective.
8 November 2025, 11:43 AM Books & Literature
NEWS REPORT / “Curious love letter”: Wole Soyinka responds after US cancels visa
He responded to the situation with grace, mentioning “I like people who have a sense of humour".
30 October 2025, 10:45 AM Books & Literature

On the many flavours of horror in children’s literature

What do we make of the mysterious thread that connects these stories not by genre, but by an imagination so wondrous they leave room for an underlying horror, and the many things that can mean?
5 December 2023, 13:45 PM

Love, loss, and hope in Tehran

Overnight, the saffron summer afternoons and evenings of dreamy stargazing tumble into a tale of grief, guilt, and pain.
5 December 2023, 01:55 AM

A multidimensional look at the impacts of Islamophobia around the world

This book is an incredibly informative and well-researched introductory book for understanding the construction of Islamophobia in the West and its impacts on Muslims across the globe.
4 December 2023, 13:55 PM

JK Rowling’s 'The Running Grave': A souring tale that clumsily rolls downhill

Review of 'The Running Grave' (Sphere, 2023) by Robert Galbraith
1 December 2023, 05:20 AM

Growing up with Mark Twain

On a chilly winter morning of November 2010, I came across a story that would stamp my childhood permanently. It was the winter vacation and the school finals were just over. While playing board games at one of my friend’s, I found quite a picturesque book filled with illustrations and art. It was titled, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876).
30 November 2023, 14:00 PM

Keep your secrets close and your tech support closer

Addison Square is one of those hidden enclaves where well-heeled Londoners tuck themselves away to create bubbles of “civilised life” from which they can exclude the riffraff surrounding them in the mega-city they call home.
29 November 2023, 18:00 PM

On the Palestine Question: Roald Dahl, Harold Pinter, and others

On Saturday, February 15, 2003, I was part of a 15-coach convoy from Portsmouth to London, UK.
29 November 2023, 18:00 PM

There's a Jo March in every woman

Whether it was in the past or in the present, Jo March instilled herself in every woman. 
29 November 2023, 14:00 PM

Disempowering voices of propaganda: The BDS movement in books

When millions of lives are at stake and indiscriminate violations of human rights are perpetuated, there is no longer space to entertain the debate on whether the art should be separated from the artist
28 November 2023, 13:00 PM

Nobody writes like Arundhati Roy

When a dear friend recommended The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy, it took me one page to grow up. 
24 November 2023, 16:00 PM

Despair and death in ‘Truth or Dare’

Bangladeshi literature in English has had a considerably late start compared to its South Asian counterparts in India and Pakistan. A few exceptions aside, a consistency came to be seen only by the early 2010s.
22 November 2023, 18:00 PM

In search of lost eden

From the beginning we see Benjamin Honey, the patriarch of the island, longing to return to his past, in a garden, the Eden of his childhood where he reminisces about being with a woman who might or might not have been her mother.
22 November 2023, 18:00 PM

Revisiting ‘Chobir Deshe, Kobitar Deshe’

The book captures all the enjoyable experiences of travelling, and the food they ate, and provides descriptions of France's seas.
18 November 2023, 15:55 PM

The progressive depiction of women in ‘Devdas’

In some ways, Sharatchandra places the blame for Devdas's ensuing sorrow on his lack of courage, made all the more noticeable in comparison to Parbati's courage in breaking social norms despite the dire consequences it could have for her.
17 November 2023, 18:00 PM

A masterful portrait of normalised misogyny and sexism

Award winning Irish writer Claire Keegan is a master of short fiction. Her previous novel, Small Things Like
15 November 2023, 18:00 PM

The complete works of Mahmudul Haque: The chorus of a unique sun

Mahmudul Haque was a writer who championed the modern and independent stream of Bangla literature.
15 November 2023, 18:00 PM

Discovering enlightenment and creativity at Dhaka Flow Festival

In addition to the activities, the event offered an array of distinctive stalls for festival goers, featuring sustainable and healthy products rooted in Bangladesh.
15 November 2023, 15:55 PM

The Hermitage Residency: In Conversation with Arif Anwar and Julia Philips

Last week, Daily Star Books interviewed Bangladeshi-Canadian writer Arif Anwar, author of The Storm (2018), and American novelist Julia Phillips, author of Disappearing Earth (2019).
14 November 2023, 16:00 PM

Witnessing the council of animals in the Sundarbans

Mayurpankhi’s books have the calibre to engage readers of all ages. This book is not an exception either.
13 November 2023, 15:55 PM

‘Shohoj Kothai Orthoniti’ A localised flavour of economics

Flipping the pages of a textbook often makes me feel like I’m trapped in the US. We studied economics from an American lens, using American textbooks,
8 November 2023, 18:00 PM