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
The retrospection of Christopher Isherwood: A man exploring the heart of falling Berlin
Perhaps his most significant occupation was one as a diarist who took it upon himself to document his life as he moved through some of the most interesting scenes of human history.
16 July 2022, 13:48 PM
Netflix’s ‘Persuasion’ misunderstands Jane Austen’s novel entirely
The problem with Netflix’s adaptation of Persuasion is that it doesn't know what it wants to be.
15 July 2022, 15:01 PM
On books that became memories over Eid holidays
I remember Ma through her books as well, the little of her thoughts and ideas that she could share with the young me then.
15 July 2022, 08:12 AM
Getting a grip on the Bangladesh development narrative
The book poses a number of questions: which factors have contributed to Bangladesh’s growth?
14 July 2022, 08:13 AM
Poet Helal Hafiz hospitalised
Poet Helal Hafeez has been admitted to the Combined Military Hospital (CMH) in the capital at 8 PM on Wednesday.
13 July 2022, 17:56 PM
Five of BTS leader RM’s favourite books
RM, leader of the popular K-pop band BTS, is not only a musician but also an avid reader.
13 July 2022, 11:42 AM
You are what you eat in Mashiul Alam's "The Meat Market" (trans. Shabnam Nadiya)
It is a story of discomfort. Of calm, ruthless violence. A drag-your-hands-down-to-uncover-your-eyes gaze at the oblivion we practice not only during Eid holidays, but on any regular day in Bangladesh.
11 July 2022, 13:21 PM
What’s stopping us from reading books?
How did I get here? Can I unleash the wee bookworm that could devour books back?
9 July 2022, 15:27 PM
Monica Ali's 'Love Marriage': A tale of love across two cultures
Love Marriage (Simon & Schuster, 2022), Monica Ali’s latest novel, is set in contemporary London, and the city, along with its concurrent glory, glides in the background as a couple endeavours to bring their families together for their wedding.
6 July 2022, 18:00 PM
A history of this subcontinent, woven in jute
The book reveals how in mid-19th century colonial East Bengal jute first emerged “as a global commodity”
6 July 2022, 18:00 PM
Brecht’s poetry presented in delicious Bangla
“The process of translation is a rigorous delight. But the product? As a translator, you also always carry with you an anxious awareness of the ways in which you have fallen short. You have seen it, that, at least, you hope; but you have failed to carry it over.” - Tom Kuhn.
6 July 2022, 18:00 PM
Absurdism, reality, and Franz Kafka
Kafka’s world is chaotic. His stories, no matter how bizarre their plots, are always ones that we can connect to.
3 July 2022, 11:09 AM
Rubaiya Murshed’s ‘Nobody’s Children’: UPL publishes book on struggles of street children
Nobody’s Children is a collection of “ten real stories” of homeless children living without any of the support or privilege we take for granted.
2 July 2022, 13:13 PM
Durian Sukegawa’s ‘Sweet Bean Paste’: On second chances and the plight of leprosy patients
Sweet Bean Paste (2013) by Durian Sukegawa is a tale of friendship and redemption in an unforgiving society.
30 June 2022, 10:43 AM
Sally Rooney's conversations on suppressed female hysteria: A review of the adaptation
Sally Rooney is well known for transforming her novels into visually pleasing and satisfactory adaptations.
26 June 2022, 15:08 PM
Sabyasachi Hazra’s unique perspective on Bangla typography
The exhibition ends today (June 25) at 9 pm BST.
25 June 2022, 08:29 AM
From Feni to New Zealand: Trinkets of a life lived
Mastura's penning is sincere. She crafts the details like a watchsmith, a representation of which could be found in the very first piece of the book, named "Feni".
22 June 2022, 18:00 PM
Abdulrazak Gurnah’s ‘Desertion’: The politics of leaving
Zanzibar-born (now Tanzania) writer Abdulrazak Gurnah was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2021. One of his 10 published novels, Desertion (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2005) is about—like many of his other works—colonialism, racism, cultural and religious biases, migration, and of course, desertion.
22 June 2022, 18:00 PM
Manash Ghosh's ' Bangladesh War': Dispatches of independence
Bangladesh War resembles a journalist's diary. Ghosh's tone is neither that of a critic nor a judge.
22 June 2022, 18:00 PM
Five books I would sell my soul to re-read for the first time
Honeyman gives Eleanor a personality beyond her mental illness.
20 June 2022, 12:09 PM