2024: The year of literature in translation

Starting from comfort reads to kicking-my-feet-giggling romance to stimulating memoirs, there is a little bit for everyone from every country, including the vast South Asia. Here we have accumulated a few titles to give you an overview of all the translated works published this year. 
25 December 2024, 18:00 PM

On invisibilised violence

In classic Bengali fiction, the kitchen is a central site for conflict and community bonding.
6 December 2024, 18:00 PM

I love you; it’s ruining my life

Someone in a chat group somewhere called Sally Rooney the ‘Taylor Swift’ of the literary world, and now I cannot unsee it.
4 December 2024, 18:00 PM

The vampires of Bangla literature

Pale, aristocratic, seductive forces lurking in the dark—when we think of vampires, we often perceive them through a western lens
15 November 2024, 18:00 PM

On the national anthem of Bangladesh: An apologetic discourse (part two)

The question here should be: Why does the nationality of the poet matter if the sentiment and emotional dimensions are the central focus that keeps the dynamic of a national anthem active?
18 October 2024, 13:58 PM

Manufacturing praise

Sometime ago, a writer reached out to me with a request. His debut novel was being published later in the year and he was wondering if I would be open to reviewing it. I was aware of the book, having read it when it was still only a draft. The author was not someone I only knew, either, but a mentor who had supported my writing in many ways, even through monetary means. Refusing him, then, felt tantamount to betrayal. But I had to in the end, and though he understood, I still came out of the exchange feeling guilty of being unhelpful or, worse, ungrateful.
21 August 2024, 18:00 PM

5 short books you can read and finish on Eid day

Here is a list of 5 short and swift books for fellow bookworms (people who would much rather stay in than socialise) to nestle in with on this Eid day. 
11 April 2024, 04:45 AM

Mr Moti

The monsoons have passed. Moti has grown so healthy, so strong and so big that no other cocks even dare to be near him.
16 December 2023, 13:55 PM

The sarees and the stories we inherit

For the first time, I also found myself giddy over a male protagonist from the world of my father and uncles. The character of Nadeem, Selina's boyfriend, can be best described as a "man written by a woman".
13 December 2023, 18:00 PM

Homeward

When I was born, my skin was dark, like my grandfather’s, in whose arms I discovered my first home. Relatives old and new, whose disappointment was being nursed by my parents’ fair complexions, looked from afar as my rotund cheeks melted into the sleeves of my dada’s discolored half-sleeve shirt.
13 October 2023, 18:00 PM

Rabindranath Tagore’s ‘Gora’: From notions of purity to an all-embracing Bharatborsho

Rabindranath Tagore’s Gora, written between 1907 and 1909, reveals the ways in which Tagore addresses the all-important issues of his time—national identity formation, the coming together of people over time, and obstacles or barriers put in the way of the progress of a nation. The novel captures Tagore’s fascination with envisioning a future based on human amity or moitri, one where the powerless and the dispossessed transcend the barriers of division and distrust.
4 August 2023, 18:00 PM

Syed Waliullah: husband, artist, thinker, writer

The book includes excerpts from Syed Waliullah's diary, snapshots of his editorial for Contemporary magazine, handwritten edits on his pieces for Shaogat magazine, and a comprehensive bibliography of the author's work and achievements.
17 August 2022, 18:00 PM