The shelf / 7 Asian healing fiction recommendations for rainy days

Bengal Shilpalay in Dhanmondi, Dhaka hosted a two-day literary event on May 15 and 16, consisting of a memorial lecture and a discussion session organised by Bengal Foundation and Kali O Kalam. The event, organised with the participation of prominent researchers, writers, and artists of the country—brought up literature, culture, social thought, and various contemporary issues.

At the beginning of “A Day Eight Years Ago” (originally published in 1954) by Jibananda Das, we learn that a man has been taken to the morgue.

And the crocodile cuts through the burbling rapid, mossy snout blinking with sun.

The plane begins its descent past the customary carpeting of sepia clouds,

Published during the 2026 Ekushey Book Fair, Daaknam Bhule Gechi follows a city-bred teenager whose life changes when he moves with his family to a deserted palace in his father’s village.

On April 25, The Reading Circle celebrated its 20th anniversary with the launch of Stories My Grandma (Never) Told Me at Ajo Idea Space in Gulshan-2. Published by Nymphea Publication, the anthology brings together stories exploring family secrets, memory, and women’s histories.

A few months ago, while waiting for my matter to be called in court, I watched a young lawyer rise to make a submission.

Management says irregularities and misconduct were recently detected

Ultimately, these authors reject the fantasy of the flawless matriarch, proving that devotion and ambivalence are often delivered from the exact same source. This Mother’s Day, let us celebrate the mothers who nurtured us, mourn the ones we’ve lost, and hold space for those whose experiences of motherhood exist in the shadows.

You’re a traffic island in our consciousness, O Rabindranath!

Though his characters breathe through very human emotions, yearning, hesitation, separation, regret, Tagore lifts love gently away from the limits of the human hand. It becomes something inwardly vast, where feeling matters more than outcome, and presence matters more than possession. This is why his lovers often come close, yet never arrive.

His voice still inspires humanity to love and protect earth

The gift Tagore leaves us is not perfection. It takes a lot of courage to even ask the question in the first place. Therefore, let us take up the work he left unfinished, under the same banyan tree he sat under, with the same soft breeze he felt, as the soft afternoon light turns gold when the sun starts to set. Was it his time? Yes. Would he be different today? We will never know. But us, asking, is our tribute.

Banu Mushtaq, an Indian writer who writes in Kannada language, was awarded the International Booker Prize in 2025 for “exploring the lives of those often on the periphery of society” in her collection of short stories, Heart Lamp (And Other Stories Publishing, 2024).

It is a Tuesday afternoon in Dhaka. Cars are honking, fumes are rising. A banker named Anirban rear-ends another car—typical for the city. Until he steps out. He sees that the other driver has been dead for what seems like days but is still moving. And he wants to talk.

The winners of the 2026 Pulitzer Prizes have been announced, recognising publications, publication staff, individual journalists, and authors across 23 award categories for journalism, reporting, criticism, photography, authorship, and overall excellence in their fields. The winners for each category were announced on May 4,2026 via live broadcasts on the Pulitzer Prizes website and YouTube channel.

Bengali literature had already seen its fair share of tall-tale storytellers—most notably Ghana Da by Premendra Mitra and Tenny Da by Narayan Gangopadhyay. Tarinicharan Banerjee, or Tarini Khuro, is not entirely different in essence. He lives in Beniatola Lane and walks to Ballygunge to narrate his stories to a group of eager listeners—among them Poltu, the narrator, and Napla, a slightly rebellious boy who delights in interrupting him. As I read those stories late into the night, I found myself, willingly or not, becoming the sixth member of their circle.

One of the most interesting adaptations that I have read recently is the 2025 novel I, Medusa by African American novelist Ayana Gray.

That censorship is not only malign but also stupid and, in the long run, futile, is a lesson that every tinpot dictator and overzealous bureaucrat has to learn afresh.

When I was younger, I would wait for days like these with a kind of breathless excitement. My cousins and I would run out with buckets to collect the first hailstones, laughing as they bounced off the floor and stung our fingers with their tiny, icy weight. To my five-year-old self, they felt like strange little creatures dropped from another world, cold and impossible to hold for long before they slipped back into the water.