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 stories are born on the field

Stories, whether in reality or on the field, play an important factor in shaping how we as humans see both sports and life.
1 December 2022, 12:55 PM

Andy Warhol & Truman Capote talk out their anxieties

Andy Warhol suggested they tape their conversations on his Sony Walkman, to which Truman Capote agrees.
1 December 2022, 12:00 PM

Jane Borges’ 'Bombay Balchão' is a crafty explosion of flavour

The characters crackle with life, quirky and contradictory, despicable and sympathetic in turns.
1 December 2022, 04:00 AM

Nadeem Zaman’s new novel takes ‘The Great Gatsby’ to Dhaka

To be published by Hachette India in early 2023 and meant to be circulated exclusively in South Asia, the novel is “a story of passion, decadence, infidelity, privilege, identity, and the many confounding faces of love and loss in contemporary Dhaka.
30 November 2022, 12:00 PM

6 books we recommend this week

When you go to a book-store, it is often difficult to choose from the plethora of newly released books available. The following list should help when deciding what new books to buy.
27 November 2022, 12:06 PM

5 books on Argentina’s football history

For fans of the Argentinia team, these five books can be a portal to favourite moments in football history. 
26 November 2022, 14:49 PM

What ails Bangladesh's publishing industry?

The price we pay for the local paper takes advantage of that extra duty, and practically we are stuck with buying low quality local paper with questionable output often.
26 November 2022, 11:38 AM

Bob Dylan publisher sorry for $600 book’s replica autographs

The allegedly “hand-signed” copies were not individually inscribed.
26 November 2022, 09:00 AM

Blood, sweat, and football

The doctors told me that I should forget about playing football. But I just had one thing on my mind: I was going to be back on the pitch again and prove everyone wrong. 
24 November 2022, 12:02 PM

Hope over fate

Finding himself at the epicentre of the disaster, Abed realised that a large number of deaths (an estimated 500,000) in the “world’s deadliest known tropical cyclone” were not necessarily caused by the natural disaster.
24 November 2022, 00:00 AM

On poet Sufia Kamal: A revolutionary journey

She came out from the cocoon of the accepted designated roles of women and marched forward to live an extraordinary life. 
23 November 2022, 11:44 AM

Children’s author Ali Imam no more

Ali Imam, the author of more than 600 books, breathed his last on Monday evening in the Bangladesh Medical College Hospital in the capital’s Dhanmondi area.
21 November 2022, 15:40 PM

Simon & Schuster's owner to let sale to Penguin fall apart, sources say

Bertelsmann will owe Paramount a USD 200 million break-up fee as a result of the transaction falling apart.
21 November 2022, 08:55 AM

7 books to get you pumped up for football World Cup season

With the FIFA World Cup 2022 starting today, tensions run high around the country. Avid football fans have already dawned on their favourite team’s jerseys and hoisted their country’s flags alongside that of Bangladesh’s. The entire world will be glued to their tv screens till a winner emerges to claim the Football World Cup.
20 November 2022, 13:04 PM

Tales of a development sector doyen

The book doesn’t only become a memoir of the writer’s life as a development worker, but also a tribute to the late Sir Abed and his magnanimity as a human being and a visionary. 
19 November 2022, 12:45 PM

On Gabriel García Márquez’s unpublished manuscript

She has been coming to this hotel for the last 28 years, ever since her mother died, and has chosen to stay in the exact same room as she does every year. She uses the same road from the hotel to travel to her mother’s resting place and buys flowers from the same African woman.
19 November 2022, 03:55 AM

In Iffat Nawaz’s debut novel, 1971 is not an open wound

Shurjo’s Clan uses magic realism to conjure Shurjomukhi’s freedom fighter uncles, who were martyred in Sylhet’s tea gardens during the 1971 Liberation War, and her grandmother, who took her own life shortly after the 1947 Partition. 
18 November 2022, 07:34 AM

Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose: A relative’s perspective on an enigmatic hero

Nehru was revolted by Nazism and the persecution of Europe’s Jews. Bose…felt that the Indian struggle for freedom should override all other considerations.
17 November 2022, 05:46 AM

HarperCollins union begins strike, citing wages, diversity

In recent years, entry- and mid-level employees throughout publishing have been increasingly vocal on social media about their unhappiness with wages, workloads and diversity.
14 November 2022, 08:37 AM

Himu taught me it was okay to not be normal

Himu not only made me look beyond goals that lead to a luxury of life, but he also taught me to enjoy the tiny bits that make life agreeable.
13 November 2022, 11:45 AM