The shelf / 7 Asian healing fiction recommendations for rainy days

Reading through P. Paramita’s debut novel Appetite, I was reminded of my own days of wrestling fanaticism, around 2008, when I would eat through hours of TNA (I was particularly obsessed with Sting, even aping his facepaint at home with talcum and markers).

Last month, in an auditorium of poets, novelists, essayists, artists, I sat in a haunting silence after Palestinian author Sarah Aziza ended a lecture about writing from the ruins.

The Department of English and Modern Languages (DEML) at North South University hosted the third annual edition of its Slam Poetry event on August 15 2026. This event was a continuation of a tradition that began in November 2024, which has developed into a platform for students to explore poetry through performance and to engage with the diverse forms of creative expression within the university community. This year’s slam poetry event, themed “In Transit”, marked the largest response the initiative has received since its inception, with 76 submissions received and 12 participants ultimately selected to perform.

When the time comes, As I am lying on the floor,

I wish I wish  to the wishing well I had more time with you,

John Dryden, an English poet, literary critic, and social reformist of the 17th century, believed that “it is only for poets to translate a poet”.

A Bangladeshi story found an eager audience in the heart of New York as P. Paramita’s debut novel, Appetite, sold out its available copies on the day of its launch at the historic Strand Bookstore in Manhattan on August 6, 2026.

Humayun Azad has been described by different adjectives: progressive, anti-traditionalist, and anti-establishment- at different times.

From the moment it was first announced to its theatrical release, Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey (2026) has sparked immense debate amongst fans and critics alike.

Project Ladyland 2026, a theatrical production inspired by Begum Rokeya’s classic fiction, Sultana’s Dream, was launched at Aloki on August 8th, 2026. The project is sponsored by HerStory Foundation, supported by the British Council, and Women of the World (WOW) Foundation.

For centuries, literature asked us to believe that language is more than information, that it’s a rich repository of history, memory, grief, longing, humour, silence, and entire ways of seeing and making sense of the world.

​A single night’s rain submerged Dhaka city, and my mind kept drifting back to my friend Kaisar.

So, unlike Rabindranath Tagore, who left documented comments on Jibanananda, Nazrul did not leave an authenticated body of criticism on him. What survives is essentially that famous humorous remark, whose authenticity cannot be verified beyond later recollections.

This book has been categorised as a fantasy romance, but it has much wider dimensions than that.

Anxiety as an emotion is revelatory of not only individual fears, but structural ones.

No river remembers the exact moment it became a river. It remembers rain, perhaps.

​Memory is the bedrock of human existence. But what happens when that bedrock begins to crumble and a loved one starts to fade away? In I Remain in Darkness (originally Je ne suis pas sortie de ma nuit, translated by Tanya Leslie), Annie Ernaux offers a raw, unflinching, and deeply poetic exploration of this existential crisis.

In the year 1996, just a year before his untimely death, Aktaruzzaman Elias had published his magnum opus, Khwabnama.

The longlist for the Booker Prize 2026 has been unveiled, highlighting 13 novels that span a wide range of genres, settings, and themes. The selection has been made from 163 submissions— which includes previous Booker winners Marlon James and Douglas Stuart, alongside former shortlisted author Elizabeth Strout, and 10 first-time longlistees. The list, this year, also introduced three debut novelists.

“It is one of those questions that politely pretends to be a title, but secretly aspires to be a life’s work,” began Dr. Azfar Hussain on an overcast evening on the July 23, 2026, addressing a packed forum hall at the University of Liberal Arts, Bangladesh (ULAB), alluding to the title of his public lecture: What Does It Mean to Be Human in the Age of 'Posthumanism' and Global Fascism?