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

‘Eken Babu’ writer Sujan Dasgupta found dead under mysterious circumstances

He was reportedly found lying on the floor of his bedroom, according to the police. 
18 January 2023, 12:32 PM

William Dalrymple plays a role in world’s largest Commonwealth heritage conservation programme

The 216-year-old building of the former British Residency of Hyderabad (also known as Koti Residency or Hyderabad Residency) has been fully restored after a remodelling work of nearly 20 years.
16 January 2023, 11:42 AM

Hanif Kureishi's Twitter diary and why he couldn't make it to Bangladesh

"I realised I had to start again as a person and a writer. I had to become a comic writer, a serious writer, a writer who could integrate the madness and most interesting elements on the same page."
16 January 2023, 06:09 AM

Italian man steals unpublished books by award-winning authors

The more than 1,000 stolen manuscripts included a work by a Pulitzer Prize-winning author.
15 January 2023, 07:20 AM

‘Border Crossings’ hopes to reconcile diasporic identities

Syed Afzal Hasan Uddin says of first generation immigrants that they—who are already grappling with the duality of their multifaceted identities—were not seen as being Bengali enough by their parents.
14 January 2023, 12:18 PM

The art of moderating literary conversations

Rifat Munim highlighted how a moderator can be a catalyst to an engaging dialogue between the panellists and the audience,
13 January 2023, 18:00 PM

Foreign literature is a very precious tool for peace

Daily Star Books’ panel on January 8, Day 4 of the Dhaka Lit Fest sought to take the audience to a more existential aspect of what the festival attempts to do. Who chooses which stories deserve to become books? Who chooses whether news of those books will even reach readers? Does book criticism truly help the flow and business of literature within and across national borders?
13 January 2023, 18:00 PM

Goddesses of Bengal: The living myth of Devi Manasa, Bon Bibi and more

There is absolutely no necessary relationship between the worship of goddesses and the treatment of women.
13 January 2023, 18:00 PM

‘Khandito Nazrul’: Why he is and should be relevant

The difficulty of translation is one of the reasons why Nazrul is not discussed as extensively as Tagore in the west.
13 January 2023, 18:00 PM

Colleen Hoover cancels ‘It Ends With Us’ colouring book on domestic abuse

Readers are questioning how “a coloring book was ever going to ‘tastefully mirror Lilly Bloom’s story’ of violent domestic abuse.”
13 January 2023, 06:32 AM

Local publishers, sales, and the 2023 Dhaka Lit Fest

This year a ticketing system was imposed. As such, sales were lower than expected.
12 January 2023, 11:50 AM

Three literary walks: Nilanjana Roy, Shehan Karunatilaka, Daisy Rockwell

With a Books page you're creating a running history of the ideas and the parallel history or the imagination of a country.
12 January 2023, 11:07 AM

Can we justify censorship in culture?

The panel spoke broadly about censorship, #MeToo movement, mob mentality, cancel culture, JK Rowling, and social media echo chambers. 
9 January 2023, 14:51 PM

Russell Banks, praised author of ‘Cloudsplitter’, dies at 82

Banks, a professor emeritus at Princeton University, died Saturday in upstate New York, his editor, Dan Halpern, told The Associated Press. Banks was being treated for cancer.
9 January 2023, 09:15 AM

Dhaka Lit Fest closing: literature too can be a party

The last day of the 10th Dhaka Lit Fest today began on a calmer note.
8 January 2023, 14:59 PM

Dhaka Lit Fest 2023: Kishwar Chowdhury to open a restaurant soon

"I started my journey with a simple dream of writing a book for my children", she shared at the talk. 
8 January 2023, 12:16 PM

Dhaka Lit Fest 2023: What the agent does for writers and actors

Despite the popularity of TV, cinematic rights come with their drawbacks. While it is thrilling for a novelist to have their work taken up by a production house, sometimes their work ends up in a forgotten corner for a long time.
8 January 2023, 09:15 AM

DHAKA LIT FEST, DAY 3: Big books, big ideas

Author and literary critic Nilanjana Roy moderated a session on "A World Without a Centre", with Nobel laureate Abdulrazak Gurnah, Bengali litterateur Amitav Ghosh, and novelist and political analyst Pankaj Mishra discussing how novels play a role in shaping a world that lives with the legacy of colonialism, and the of impacts of climate crises and technology.
7 January 2023, 18:00 PM

FIND US AT DHAKA LIT FEST THIS WEEK!

Media platforms that critique literature are, therefore, at the heart of the book ecosystem. They shape a book’s public perception and can bolster (or destroy) sales.
7 January 2023, 12:59 PM

Favourite season

Showers and storms give way To a surge of sunlight A fragrance of hope floats in On morning breeze
6 January 2023, 18:00 PM