Book Reviews Apala Bhowmick The Aunt Who Wouldn’t Die (John Murray, 2019), by Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay, translated from the original Bangla by Arunava Sinha, is a fast-paced thriller about the rescue mission around the flagging finances of an erstwhile-affluent Bengali family who open a shop in the city that sells sarees. The narrators consist of three women of different generations of the family, lending the plot a delightful tripartite divide. It is a tale about the tenacity of the human spirit to withstand hardships and about human relationships that endure. This translation—of a difficult text to translate—possesses the rare quality of being appealing to both the English-speaking reader and to the audience who can understand the Bengali language. I’ve had a chance to read the original Bengali text as well, and the work has been successfully transferred, cultural flavor and all, into a rather curt and mercantile language like English. Speaking of mercantilism, the reader will be afforded a sidelong glance at upper-middle-class Bengali sentiments, at least at a certain point in the history of this community, toward professions like the merchant’s or the petit bourgeois shopkeeper’s. Words like shaashuri and Pishima have been retained, and the name Chakor Mitra, which the reader will encounter on the very first page, is phonetically funny but also funny when you know the implications of the first name when it’s used as a noun in... Continue reading at 'World Literature Today'
[ World Literature Today | 2020-03-10 15:47:11 UTC ]
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In the midst of chaos, the characters in these books find their own ways to metabolize real-life tragedy. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2024-01-15 10:00:46 UTC ]
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Read your way into the best historical fiction of 2023, which spans the globe and time. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2024-01-12 11:31:00 UTC ]
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William Gladstone, the literary agent, publisher, author, and founder of Waterside Productions, died on December 27. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-01-12 05:00:00 UTC ]
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Lisa Marie Presley's posthumous memoir will hit shelves later this year, with the help of her daughter Riley Keough, who picked up the pieces. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2024-01-11 20:25:14 UTC ]
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The debut novel 'Dead in Long Beach, California,' is a sharp, dazzling turn for Compton-raised author Venita Blackburn, who made her name with lightning-fast fiction. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2024-01-11 11:00:44 UTC ]
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The former editorial director of Bantam and Ballantine and founder of Villard Books at Random House and an eponymous imprint at Houghton Mifflin, whose long and storied career in trade book publishing lasted into his final hours, died on December 31. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-01-11 05:00:00 UTC ]
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Somers, who died in her Brooklyn home this past August, worked on Justice Sonia Sotomayor's memoir, two novels by Toni Morrison, and Martin Sherwin and Kai Bird's Pulitzer-winning biography of J. Robert Oppenheimer in her 13-year tenure at Knopf. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-01-11 05:00:00 UTC ]
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The best new sci-fi and fantasy books out January 2024 feature mythological retellings, space adventures, cyberpunk ghost stories, and more! Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2024-01-02 11:30:00 UTC ]
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Roy Gainsburg, president of St. Martin's Press from 1987 to 1997, died on December 9. He was 91. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-12-18 05:00:00 UTC ]
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These books provide us with a deeper understanding of what Korea is beyond what we hear or see in popular culture. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2023-12-15 11:30:00 UTC ]
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Of all the great premises™ boasted by this year’s slate of movies, the wonderful American Fiction has one of the very best. The film is about a veteran writer of literary fiction who, as a Black man, finds himself undesirable in the literary market for his lack of conforming to type. The... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-12-15 09:55:27 UTC ]
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The father of Jeffrey Dahmer, he wrote a memoir that one reviewer said sought to “peer not just into the soul of his son but into his own.” Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2023-12-13 00:00:21 UTC ]
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NoViolet Bulawayo among authors paying tribute to independent publishing house that shook up the country’s literary sceneWhen the Zimbabwean editor Irene Staunton and her husband Murray McCartney set up their publishing business in 1998, it seemed natural to call it Weaver Press. Their modest... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-12-07 07:00:02 UTC ]
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This week, the 42nd John Dos Passos Prize was awarded to novelist and short story writer Patricia Engel (Vida; The Veins of the Ocean; Infinite Country; The Faraway World) by Longwood University. The Dos Passos Prize is the oldest literary award given by a Virginia college or university, and... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-12-05 16:21:20 UTC ]
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Should historical fiction stick to the views and opinions of the time, or provide a modern perspective? Here are the pros and cons. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2023-12-05 11:31:00 UTC ]
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It’s been a roller coaster of a year. Thankfully, we’ve had novels to whisk us to days gone by, even if those eras had their own highs and lows. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2023-12-05 10:01:03 UTC ]
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From witch stories to near-future noir, here are the year’s 10 best speculative books. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2023-12-04 10:00:38 UTC ]
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A secret, a disappearance, a frozen body and a mysterious stranger — these historical novels have something for everyone. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2023-12-01 10:53:25 UTC ]
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New books by Vajra Chandrasekera, Avi Silver, Cadwell Turnbull, Michael Mammay and T. Kingfisher. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2023-12-01 10:32:14 UTC ]
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New York book publisher Casey McIntyre's health insurance allowed her to receive cancer care without saddling her family in medical debt. But as she navigated the health-care system, she met other patients who weren't so fortunate. Continue reading at CBC
[ CBC | 2023-11-29 22:49:53 UTC ]
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