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
BOOK REVIEW: FICTION / Lessons in Chemistry : A novel that reads you
22 January 2026, 15:54 PM
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
EVENT REPORT / Md Ashanur Rahman receives the International Creative Arts Award 2025
19 January 2026, 17:38 PM
Books & Literature
NEWS REPORT / NSU DEML launches inaugural certificate course in creative writing
17 January 2026, 16:00 PM
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
REFLECTIONS / Moon, memory, manifesto: A personal, lyrical essay on Atrai
21 November 2025, 18:28 PM
Books & Literature
REFLECTIONS / The risk of becoming: Notes on translation and transformation
7 November 2025, 18:33 PM
Books & Literature
THE SHELF / 5 books on women’s everyday terror to read this Halloween: The horror that persists
31 October 2025, 13:45 PM
Books & Literature
THE SHELF / 8 books to read if you’re fascinated by the louvre heist
30 October 2025, 13:30 PM
Books & Literature
EVENT REPORT / Unveiling ‘The July Resolve': Stories of resilience & resistance
14 January 2026, 16:01 PM
Books & Literature
EVENT REPORT / Singing a 900-year-old song: Exploring Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam with Zeba Rasheed Chowdhury
3 January 2026, 10:26 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
EVENT REPORT / Zia Haider Rahman on his award-winning novel at NSU’s Colloquium series
7 November 2025, 11:48 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
EVENT REPORT / Stepping into the uncanny world of Franz Kafka
26 October 2025, 11:55 AM
Books & Literature
THE SHELF / 6 books that I read at the end of last year… I hated 5 of them
You know that feeling when you crack open a new book and you’re convinced that this is the knight in all its paperback shining armour that will save you from your reading slump? Yeah.
7 January 2026, 18:00 PM
Books & Literature
TRIBUTE / Remembering Razia Khan Amin: The pen that forged a generation’s courage
28 December 2025, 12:19 PM
THE SHELF / 5 books to rescue you from brainrot
17 October 2025, 14:45 PM
6 books that bring Bangladesh to life for diaspora teens
10 October 2025, 19:11 PM
BOOK REVIEW: GRAPHIC NOVEL / The tragedy of ‘Demon Slayer’
10 October 2025, 14:30 PM
THE SHELF / 7 lyrical fantasy books: Where prose becomes poetry
7 October 2025, 11:14 AM
BOOK REVIEW: NONFICTION / In which Arundhati gives it those ones
1 October 2025, 18:00 PM
FICTION / The truth factory
12 September 2025, 18:54 PM
BOOK REVIEW: NONFICTION / The Indosphere and its discontents
10 September 2025, 18:00 PM
Essay / Sonnet of the riverbank: Remembering Al Mahmud, the poet
29 August 2025, 19:49 PM
Home and its place in Bangla literature
When we study the effects of urbanisation on formerly relevant concepts of home, newer images pop up and we find them coexisting with the previously established one.
18 March 2023, 15:00 PM
Of ‘BONOBIBI’ and music as a form of storytelling
The verses remind us that a withering, war-torn Earth can still birth new life and hopes of freedom.
18 March 2023, 06:31 AM
The University Press Limited heads to Chittagong
On Saturday, March 18, UPL will inaugurate its new sales centre in Chittagong at Jamal Khan Road’s Sanmar Spring Garden.
16 March 2023, 15:00 PM
A memoir that helps understand development
Perhaps the most important contribution of the book lies in providing intimate insights into how NGOs work in Bangladesh.
16 March 2023, 09:13 AM
Can ideology win over desire?
Set in 1990s Dhaka against the backdrop of the military occupation, the novella follows the lives of a young university professor, his wife, and their house help, Phulbanu. The story is narrated entirely from Phulbanu’s perspective.
16 March 2023, 08:56 AM
5 new books to read this week
Set in the backdrop of a nameless forest, the narrative of the play 'Ekti Moragachh O Charjon Narir Shopnobhongo' revolves around characters of William Shakespeare’s creation.
16 March 2023, 00:00 AM
A diverse longlist for the 2023 International Booker Prize
Novels from India, the Caribbean, Ukraine, Spain, Bulgaria, Ivory Coast, France, Germany, Mexico, Sweden, China, Norway and South Korea in the longlist.
15 March 2023, 15:08 PM
How Netflix’s ‘Shadow and Bone’ adaptation can be improved
Season 2 of 'Shadow and Bone' will be out on Netflix on March 16—how can it do better justice to the texts than Season 1?
15 March 2023, 12:40 PM
Grow Your Reader Foundation raises the 'Flag of Peace'
Grow Your Reader Foundation instals mobile, street, and online library stations in different corners of Bangladesh, and has been providing teacher training facilities since 2016.
13 March 2023, 14:34 PM
Love the Oscars winners? Here’s what you should read
The book behind the Oscar-winning adaptations, and books about the history of the award
13 March 2023, 11:36 AM
To survive is to hope, in Nasreen Jahan’s ‘Urukku’
Originally published in 1993, 'Urukku' by Nasreen Jahan is a dive into the life of a young woman and a powerful commentary on human need.
12 March 2023, 13:00 PM
Ghazala Wahab to speak at ULAB Lit Salon on Tuesday
Also a journalist, Wahab will speak about her nonfiction, Born A Muslim, a book that talks about the increasing political irrelevance of Muslims in India and the importance of feminist interpretations of the Quran, besides highlighting other relevant socio political issues.
12 March 2023, 09:05 AM
A festive Friday thanks to Gulshan Society Book Fair
Organised by Shayaan Seraj, the Convener of Gulshan Society, the fair includes book stalls by The University Press Limited (UPL), Bookworm Bangladesh, Baatighar, Prothoma, Nymphea Publications, among others.
10 March 2023, 16:30 PM
“A well-read woman is a dangerous creature”. Is she really?
It concerns me that Tate’s apologists range from impressionable boys in my grade 9 classroom to 30-something-year-old single dads. My own mother calls me a ‘feminist’ with such chagrin in her tone, it begins to feel like a slur.
10 March 2023, 04:00 AM
What to look forward to in the Gulshan Society Book Fair 3
Star Literature will be hosting a short story reading session moderated by Sarah Anjum Bari, the Books and Literary Editor of The Daily Star, on Friday at 4PM.
9 March 2023, 11:01 AM
A legacy of women's freedom in art
Schwartz’s narrator speaks in the choral “we”, and like a daisy chain, they connect all these women’s shared yet individual experiences of feeling closed in, being violated, feeling misunderstood by society, until they all shed their names and managed to “escap[e] the century”.
9 March 2023, 00:15 AM
4 nonfiction books that unpack South Asian feminism with nuance
The collection comprises essays, poetry, short fiction, feature pieces, interviews, research reports, and photographs and artwork that explore the physical, psychological and political experiences of menstruation across South Asia.
9 March 2023, 00:00 AM
Why Iceland is a masterclass in equality
The government is better than any other nation in supporting single mothers. Parental leave is generous, and the choices and decisions by all are respected.
8 March 2023, 15:00 PM
Feminist retellings: How books reimagine mythological women
These women display extensive strength, determination and valour, acting as the pillars of their families and masters of their own fate.
8 March 2023, 10:00 AM
Looking back at the Liberation War through poetry
On the third day of the event, two documentaries were showcased. The first featured the infamous Belonia Battle, and Pakistan’s first and only surrender to the freedom fighters. It emphasised how the battle is closely intertwined with Bangladesh’s military history and has a special significance in the turn of events that led to our independence.
7 March 2023, 12:31 PM