Book Review: Nonfiction / The courage to speak: The life, ideas, and legacy of Ambassador M. Serajul Islam

8 HOUR(s) Reviews
Ambassador Islam passionately believed that a nation of 180 million people should chart its own path, maintaining good but never subservient relationships with global powers. He was acutely aware of “our traits as a nation” but remained firm in his belief that the country could only thrive under Lincoln's doctrine of government “of the people, by the people, and for the people.”
News Report / Kazuo Ishiguro set to return with new novel in 2027
20 June 2026
Ishiguro’s novels have, over his 40-plus-year career, ranged from historical fiction to fantasy to science fiction.
Event Report / Dhaka Zine Mela 2026: A celebration of creativity and community
11 June 2026
On June 6 and 7, 2026, at Goethe-Institut, Dhanmondi, Zine Mela Dhaka 2026 was held, organised by Sister Library (Dhaka) and Colors Publishing. The two-day event brought together independent artists, writers, and creators to celebrate self-publishing, artistic expression, and community engagement.

This time, just the bare bones

Horror master Edgar Allan Poe believed a really good scary story should be read in one sitting.
25 October 2023

The unclassifiable “monsters” of Guillermo Del Toro’s ‘Pinocchio’

Guillermo Del Toro’s stop-motion animation, Pinocchio (2022) is loosely based on Carlo Collodi’s novel, The Adventures of Pinocchio (1883).
25 October 2023

The hour of the wolf

For a wistful moment, he was born to me. Eyes closed and never to open.
25 October 2023

Miles away

Back at home, food used to narrate stories. Here, food does not travel far to the nooks and crannies of Velutha’s heart; it only reaches his stomach well enough to leave him looking healthy and strong.
21 October 2023

Small-town Blues

Spacious, shiny, new roads are built in my city to rent them for raw-markets
20 October 2023

The Divine Feminine

I look in the mirror, and the tides start turning,
20 October 2023

My London: An Immigrant Story

You Are a Rickshawallah
20 October 2023

In search of American freedoms

Increasingly over the years, American literary fiction has centered upon rage—a rage brought on by family, one’s own identity or, through the very cruelty of economic catastrophe.
18 October 2023

Memoirs of our unsung heroes

Massacre, murder, torture, violence, bayonet, bloodshed, grenade, displacement, death—these words bring to mind a war scenario.
18 October 2023

The Runaway Boy: A promise not delivered

The Runway Boy (Eka, 2020), written by Manoranjan Byapari and translated from Bangla by V Ramaswamy, delivers an accurate portrayal of postcolonial Bengal,
18 October 2023

Muted sunrise

The hush of dawn and the whispered breeze,/ that caresses nature's resting face
18 October 2023

Emily Wilson’s ‘The Iliad’ is a triumph in translation

Wilson hasn’t written a retelling from the perspectives of the subjugated but has rather been true to the original, although she doesn’t shy away from acknowledging the sheer misogyny of the Homeric period.
17 October 2023

Books with playlists: A new trend among contemporary authors?

A question that comes to mind is why does a book even need a playlist? There are two solid answers.
15 October 2023

Dhaka Divisional Book Fair ended amidst the need for more visibility

Most of the students from Dhaka University did not know about the fair and simply happened to pass by.
15 October 2023

Thoughts of an immigrant

She stands in front of the canvas and stares.
13 October 2023

Jojo-Buri

the moon watches over you, when whales beach themselves, the tides wash them back home; the moon looks down
13 October 2023

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

An underwhelming kidnapping

Perhaps the book's biggest fault is that it ends up being (unintentionally or not) a response to Nabokov’s Lolita.
13 October 2023

Making a killing out of a killing

A visit to any bookshop today will attest to the reading public’s fascination with crime (and criminals).
11 October 2023

Blood, rage and love on the verge of 1971

Reading Rahad Abir’s Bengal Hound, despite the novel being written in English, felt a lot like reading in Bangla. While no two languages can ever truly be compared, there is much to be said about seeing Bangla and Bangladesh through an English language lens.
11 October 2023
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