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

You’re obsessed with Wordle because…

Why is Wordle so addictive and why are a lot of people so obsessed with it?
1 April 2022, 10:35 AM

The Whole Kahani’s ‘Tongues and Bellies’: A promising literary confection

Tongues and Bellies, published by Linen Press (2021), is described by its blurb as an anthology where “sensual and surprising stories play a tantalising game of hide and seek with lies and truth”.
31 March 2022, 14:03 PM

Shuvashish Roy’s new teen book incorporates SDGs into fiction

Chevening scholar, author, and head of business development at The Daily Star, Shuvashish Roy, has published his first work of fiction, Chamakiya O Biggani Bhajaghata (Gyankosh Prokashoni, 2022), released at the Ekushey Boi Mela this year. 
31 March 2022, 11:24 AM

Ranjana Biswas, researcher on Bede community, wins Anannya literary award 2022

Ranjana Biswas, an essayist and researcher, received the award at a ceremony held on March 22 at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Dhaka. 
29 March 2022, 12:19 PM

Lessons from the diplomatic roads not taken

Neil Armstrong’s “giant leap for mankind” comes to mind while reading Hemayet Uddin’s Diplomacy in Obscurity: A Memoir (University Press Limited, 2021).
23 March 2022, 18:00 PM

Alamgir Kabir: “Zahir in Kolkata”

17 April, 1971. I reached Kolkata from Agartala on the previous day. Word reaches me that Zahir Raihan has also arrived at Kolkata on the same day.
23 March 2022, 18:00 PM

8 trips to the Boi Mela this year. Here’s what I thought.

This year’s Boi Mela was special to me. Growing up, I was never too sold on the hype around the fair—there were always too many crowds;
23 March 2022, 18:00 PM

SHORT STORY OF THE MONTH: The lingering shadows of grief in ‘The Faraway Things’

Lesedi is not “right in the head”. He avoids talking and discards words that do not make sense to him like garbage.
16 March 2022, 18:00 PM

A reliable, much needed text on corporate tax law in Bangladesh by Barrister Junayed A. Chowdhury

Complexity in any area of law leads to specialization. But it also comes with the risk of tunnel vision, of failing to visualize the bigger picture.
16 March 2022, 18:00 PM

Abdullah Al Imran's 'Kalchakra': A story of financial collapse and invincibility

We get to know only so much about what happens around us until literature takes an interest in it. The same would have happened with the shutdown of the jute mill in Khulna, nearly two decades ago, if a novel like Kalchakra (Annesha Prokashon, 2018) had not presented it to us.
16 March 2022, 18:00 PM

Why you should read Sally Rooney after all

Can there be decisive action without discourse, even if it takes the form of one or two conversations between friends in a work of fiction?
16 March 2022, 18:00 PM

A brief encounter with awakening: Revisiting Anuk Arudpragasam’s ‘The Story of a Brief Marriage’

The Story of A Brief Marriage (2016) focuses on portraying the intricacies of alienation and uncertainty through the story of Dinesh, who has survived  the Sri Lankan civil war. 
16 March 2022, 12:11 PM

‘We want to be writers when we grow up’: New sci-fi novella by sisters, fourth-graders

Cousins Faiza Shabnam and Bibha Habiba Haque, students of Class 4 in Dhaka’s Scholastica school, have written a novella about three space travelling teenagers. 
16 March 2022, 08:48 AM

13 books written by women, about women, for Women's History Month

Each book in this list features strong, fearless, bold, multi-faceted, creative, inspiring, vulnerable, witty, and most importantly, real women from all walks of life.
9 March 2022, 18:00 PM

50 women poets represent Bangladesh internationally

On February 21, 2022, the poetry anthology Arise out of the Lock was published by London and Singapore-based publishers,
9 March 2022, 18:00 PM

A memoir that retraces Sheikh Hasina and Sheikh Rehana’s days in exile

When a character from history becomes a significant figure in the state, it is difficult for a researcher or writer to write about them. They have to tread very carefully while composing a book with unknown, yet important, collected information.
9 March 2022, 18:00 PM

Rudra Goswami’s ‘Bishonno Roddur’ is a song of conscience

People often struggle to express themselves in the era of digitisation. It is a time when we are convicted by censorship, causing the decay of emotion and the loss of the ability to stand out against oppression. Humans, as a result, struggle to survive meaningfully.
9 March 2022, 18:00 PM

Bookstores in conversation at Gulshan Society Book Fair 2

Held on March 4-5 at the Gulshan Lake Park in its second iteration since 2019, the fair included stalls by several bookstores and publishers including Bookworm Bangladesh, Bengal Boi, University Press Limited, Baatighar, ULAB Press, Bishwa Shahittya Kendro, and more. 
7 March 2022, 07:53 AM

Bidyanondo encouraging vaccination and tree planting at Boi Mela

For Ekushey Boi Mela taking place in Dhaka, Bidyanondo are encouraging readers and visitors to get vaccinated with the slogan, “Dui Dose Tika Nile, Melay Boi Free te Mile”.
5 March 2022, 11:14 AM

The Bat-Mania and the Comics that Fuel it

Eventually, though, I did land on it, my first Bat-memory. It originated where my fandom for most superheroes originates—the land of comic books,
5 March 2022, 10:50 AM