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

Jennette McCurdy explores grief in its most complex form

In many ways, McCurdy’s story is not so different from the classic tale of almost every other Hollywood child star with a stage mother who indulges in her dose of fame by living vicariously through her children. But what makes this particular narrative stand out among the rest is McCurdy’s unwavering devotion to honesty even in moments that are difficult to read, let alone write.
29 October 2022, 13:17 PM

Percy Jackson fans, mount your horses

The new book’s title, revealed to be Percy Jackson and The Chalice Of The Gods, will be out on September 26, 2023, the author confirmed via Twitter.
29 October 2022, 09:58 AM

Ink for days: How Inktober is its own medium of storytelling

Pictures are really the most basic form of story-telling, aren’t they? I imagine our ancestors sat around fires doing shadow theatre. They painted on cave walls long before writing came along.
28 October 2022, 04:00 AM

Books to read if you enjoyed ‘House of the Dragon’

Like A Song of Ice and Fire, The Priory of the Orange Tree is told from the perspective of many different characters in various parts of the world, with different loyalties, religions, ranks, and abilities.
27 October 2022, 11:00 AM

Why don’t Bangladeshi books reach international award shelves?

A serious lack of outlet demotivates the publishing of anglophone literature in our literary scene. But the situation isn't completely bleak.
26 October 2022, 18:00 PM

The struggles of Nilkhet booksellers in rain and storm

"If books get damaged in the rain, no one wants to buy them, which means we have to incur severe losses. A few days ago, books worth 4,000 Taka got damaged from my stock and I was unable to sell those books. For someone like me, 4,000 taka is a very substantial amount.” 
26 October 2022, 12:34 PM

Bookworm Bangladesh to vacate shop after 30 years of serving readers

“We tried our best to keep the shop but the tides of change are upon us”, Bookworm announced on their social media today. 
26 October 2022, 09:51 AM

The journey of 'Khwabnama' from a novel to a play

I once thought it was impossible to present the magnitude of the novel on stage.
24 October 2022, 09:47 AM

5 new 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.
23 October 2022, 13:13 PM

Academics discuss Afsan Chowdhury’s ‘Narider Ekattor’

“The liberation war was terrifying for women and this is why Afsan Chowdhury’s book is crucial. It is important to study our culture to understand the history of our liberation war,” said Professor Sonia Nishat Amin.
23 October 2022, 11:56 AM

Dua Lipa stresses the importance of The Booker Prize

When being asked how she finds the time to read, she shared that she reads backstage or in the backseat of her car, on her way to meetings or interviews, “especially if I’m into a book”.
22 October 2022, 13:00 PM

Post-SSC musings: Books that helped me navigate my vacation

Despite the regret I felt for not studying them with honest academic interest, the goal of having to go through those academic books did provide me a sense of purpose. However, now that exams were over, I realised that I had to replace those mundane books with more fascinating ones.
21 October 2022, 09:23 AM

Contradictions in a book on the Bangladesh Liberation War

A "what it really was" analysis of the 1971 war does not mean the description of the actions of India only. It should also cover their mistakes and failures. The cover of this book claims to be a "definitive story", but its research and narrative are not holistic.
19 October 2022, 18:00 PM

Can a city hold a home? - Shagufta Sharmeen Tania’s short story, “What Men Live By”

“What Men Live By” opens like a children’s story—the way Matilda or most Roald Dahl books would start out—with simple, everyday events and straightforward descriptions. Eventually, though, one line caught my attention and I couldn’t help but smile:
19 October 2022, 18:00 PM

Sister Library discusses menstrual and reproductive rights

For women looking for answers in Bangladesh, abortion is not legal, but menstrual regulation is. You will face questions about your marital status. You might be turned away if the status is not right.
19 October 2022, 18:00 PM

What I write about when I write love stories

A long time ago, when I was a young writer who had just published his first collection of short stories and had just been married to a young and lovely woman, I wrote a love story in the first person, which created two unanticipated problems.
19 October 2022, 18:00 PM

A graphic novel on the push and pull of friendships

The stories occur in places deeply etched into many of our memories—from rooftops to buses to benches in the park to the digital world of emails and texts.
19 October 2022, 13:28 PM

ULAB to hold Inter-University Student Conference from Thursday

In a break from last year’s partially virtual format, this year’s event will be held at ULAB’s Permanent Campus in Beribad and its Research Building in Dhanmondi, Dhaka.
19 October 2022, 09:44 AM

Sri Lankan author Shehan Karunatilaka wins Booker Prize 2022

The novel opens with a photographer, the eponymous Maali Almeida, who has woken up dead in a celestial visa office, while his body sinks in the Beira Lake in Colombo. Maali has seven moons to find the man and woman he loves and lead them to  "a hidden cache of photos that will rock Sri Lanka".
18 October 2022, 05:38 AM

Hulu’s ‘Rosaline’ is a witty, predictable parody of ‘Romeo and Juliet’

The movie tells the classic love story from the perspective of Juliet's cousin Rosaline, who happens to be Romeo's recent ex-girlfriend. Crushed when Romeo meets Juliet and begins to pursue her, Rosaline schemes to foil the famous romance and reclaim her man.
17 October 2022, 12:16 PM