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

When Bon Bibi comes to life

The scenography for the project was made by Paris-based multinational architecture, art, and design group Golem. It has been created with the support of Harper Collins India. The installation invites visitors to enter a forest of enormous pages where scenes from the book stand as tall as trees.
11 February 2023, 11:08 AM

Dhaka Art Summit for young visitors

Animation, games and performances your children shouldn't miss on the last day of DAS 2023 today
11 February 2023, 04:58 AM

These folk tales record a unique past between South Asia and Soviet Russia

The Slavic fairy tales and Soviet stories formed a significant part of the childhood memories of people who grew up in the subcontinent from the 1960s to the mid 1980s.
10 February 2023, 13:34 PM

8 new books to buy at Boi Mela this week

Historical fiction, romance, essays, and travelogues.
10 February 2023, 09:39 AM

The books you will meet at Dhaka Art Summit 2023

For those who are especially interested in literature in book form, the first two floors of the exhibition hold treasures. 
9 February 2023, 13:31 PM

‘The book is a handicraft product’: BUET’s ‘Studio X’

"[This] is an important collection of work to be made available to the architecture, planning and engineering community as a key cornerstone of continuing to build Bangladesh", Transcom GCEO Simeen Rahman writes in her foreword. 
9 February 2023, 11:08 AM

Evil and the divine in Dostoevsky’s ‘The Brothers Karamazov’

Despite my own lack of belief in divine providence, Dostoevsky's damning portrayal of the vacuum created in a world where ideas such as religion, spirituality and faith take a backseat made me challenge my own ideas about the source of our moral conduct and made me weigh the benefits of lingering onto faith.
9 February 2023, 09:40 AM

Revisiting indigenous folktales at Dhaka Art Summit

“We wanted to share the story in our native language, just the way we heard it from our elders", said Kanak Chanpa Chakma.
8 February 2023, 14:07 PM

Salman Rushdie releases new novel six months after stabbing attack

"All I've seen is his idiotic interview in the New York Post," said Rushdie about his attacker. "Which only an idiot would do."
8 February 2023, 10:30 AM

Bengali ‘anti-novelist’ Subimal Misra no more

Bengali author Subimal Misra, 80, breathed his last at 4:50 AM on Wednesday. 
8 February 2023, 08:49 AM

'I sit down to write, and nothing happens': Salman Rushdie

"I write, but it’s a combination of blankness and junk", Salman Rushdie tells New Yorker's David Remnick.
6 February 2023, 16:20 PM

AI generated Bangladeshi comic ‘Manobjatir Grohon’: An initiative with potential

We find out that civilisation underwent the threat of extinction, where only a few survived. About 100 years later, Anika, a 19-year-old girl, comes across an orb-like glowing “machine” that is meant to “change the fate of the current humanity forevermore.”
6 February 2023, 13:29 PM

The untapped potential of our public libraries

There are few public libraries across the city which can be considered to have a decent book collection in both Bangla and English.
5 February 2023, 14:42 PM

The bookstore in the park: Bookworm opens in Gulshan 2

“The books launched and discussed at the Dhaka Lit Fest are on their way”, store owner Amina Rahman informed Daily Star Books.
5 February 2023, 12:35 PM

For the love of notebooks

"We want to use this space as a medium to connect our readers with products that accompany their habit of reading."
5 February 2023, 08:06 AM

‘Boi Mela will return to its previous glory’, says Sadat Hossain after first weekend of the fair

Crowds intensified from 4:30 PM on Friday as booklovers and literature enthusiasts from all across the city gathered to have their first sights of the beloved Boi Mela in its first weekend. 
5 February 2023, 05:09 AM

Hopes, disappointments and this year’s Ekushey Boi Mela

"I don’t believe that we will get redress from the government in this matter. The only way out is a total reform of the state": Altaf Parvez, writer and researcher.
4 February 2023, 08:54 AM

Book adaptations to look forward to in 2023

The live-action rock series follows the rise of a rock band through the 1970s Los Angeles music scene as they embark on a quest for worldwide fame.
3 February 2023, 09:53 AM

Abdus Selim’s poetry compilation of the ‘60s is a time machine

Abdus Selim’s translation and compilation is a time machine for all of us living in the new age, where poems have become much neutered.
2 February 2023, 09:28 AM

One life, and a history of two economies: Mirza Nurul Huda

His is an inspiring tale of a little boy with big dreams rising from the backwaters of Bengal to become a fabled student who went on to be a professor of Dhaka University, and to hold some of the highest offices in public service.
2 February 2023, 08:14 AM