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

25 August 2026 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.

Monica Ali: Writing on Multicultural London

After a ten-year long hiatus, Monica Ali has returned with Love-Marriage that has has caused quite a stir.
20 October 2022

Contradictions in a book on the Bangladesh Liberation War

A "what it really was" analysis of the 1971 war does not mean the description of the actions of India only. It should also cover their mistakes and failures. The cover of this book claims to be a "definitive story", but its research and narrative are not holistic.
19 October 2022

Can a city hold a home? - Shagufta Sharmeen Tania’s short story, “What Men Live By”

“What Men Live By” opens like a children’s story—the way Matilda or most Roald Dahl books would start out—with simple, everyday events and straightforward descriptions. Eventually, though, one line caught my attention and I couldn’t help but smile:
19 October 2022

Sister Library discusses menstrual and reproductive rights

For women looking for answers in Bangladesh, abortion is not legal, but menstrual regulation is. You will face questions about your marital status. You might be turned away if the status is not right.
19 October 2022

What I write about when I write love stories

A long time ago, when I was a young writer who had just published his first collection of short stories and had just been married to a young and lovely woman, I wrote a love story in the first person, which created two unanticipated problems.
19 October 2022

A graphic novel on the push and pull of friendships

The stories occur in places deeply etched into many of our memories—from rooftops to buses to benches in the park to the digital world of emails and texts.
19 October 2022

ULAB to hold Inter-University Student Conference from Thursday

In a break from last year’s partially virtual format, this year’s event will be held at ULAB’s Permanent Campus in Beribad and its Research Building in Dhanmondi, Dhaka.
19 October 2022

Sri Lankan author Shehan Karunatilaka wins Booker Prize 2022

The novel opens with a photographer, the eponymous Maali Almeida, who has woken up dead in a celestial visa office, while his body sinks in the Beira Lake in Colombo. Maali has seven moons to find the man and woman he loves and lead them to  "a hidden cache of photos that will rock Sri Lanka".
18 October 2022

Hulu’s ‘Rosaline’ is a witty, predictable parody of ‘Romeo and Juliet’

The movie tells the classic love story from the perspective of Juliet's cousin Rosaline, who happens to be Romeo's recent ex-girlfriend. Crushed when Romeo meets Juliet and begins to pursue her, Rosaline schemes to foil the famous romance and reclaim her man.
17 October 2022

How ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’ mirrors the social media age

To me, Wilde’s novel articulates the deepest anxieties of the late Victorians and continues to offer us ways to interpret our own experiences.
16 October 2022

Kathaprokash celebrates author Mashrur Arefin's work

Four of Arefin’s novels have been published so far, alongside three books of poetry and critically acclaimed translations of the Iliad and of Kafka’s short stories. 
16 October 2022

Love, fate, and age-old curses: 'The Book of Magic' by Alice Hoffman

The familial bond portrayed in the novel makes it easy to sympathise with the characters and they rarely seem woven in a piece of fiction; rather, their attributes are more lifelike and one may just find someone like Franny or Gillian Owens among their kith and kin.
15 October 2022

“No Home or Land, No Country, No Earth”: Plight of the Refugees

“War is vast. It reaches across the horizon, loftier and older than peace. Killing came before war, but it might also be that refuge preceded war.
14 October 2022

Fakir Lalon Shah: A Lighthouse in the Unreal Bazaar of the Blind

He spoke of women on equal terms at a time when women were not even people in the country where he lived (and they still are not—neither in the land of Lalon nor in the world that we proudly claim as ours.
14 October 2022

10th Dhaka Lit Fest will include Nobel Prize winners Orhan Pamuk and Abdulrazak Gurnah

After a two year hiatus caused by Covid-19, the 10th edition of the Dhaka Literary Festival will take place from January 5-8, 2023, at the capital’s Bangla Academy.
14 October 2022

Rahitul Islam's novels reflect Digital Bangladesh

A portion of the donation has been given to Sanjida Akter of Natore for the treatment of her eyes. Akter was the victim of an acid attack in November last year. 
14 October 2022

UPL releases 21st edition of Akbar Ali Khan’s ‘Porarthoporotar Orthoniti’

“Its insights into history and realism make it as enjoyable to the reader as it is deep into the subject”, UPL stated about the 21st edition of Porarthoporotar Orthoniti. 
13 October 2022

Thus, we bid goodbye to Gabo and Mercedes

Gabriel Garcia Marquez once famously said, “All human beings have three lives: public, private, and secret.”
12 October 2022

Ahaduzzaman Mohammad Ali's 'Nakhshatra Nivey Jai': Poems well worth waiting for

A series of poems also reflect his ecological sensitivity to the machine in the garden and snakes and hyenas imperiling forests and rivers and Dhaka—the city he has lived in for most of his life.
12 October 2022

Dhaka Comics' 'Protibastob' is a big step forward in our comic book industry

The 22 stories are written by popular, contemporary writers with big names such as Muhammed Zafar Iqbal, Ahsan Habib, and Mehedi Haque.
12 October 2022
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