River of Smoke is the second part of Amitav Ghosh’s Ibis Trilogy, following Sea of Poppies. Like the first novel, it is an absolute treat and for many of the same reasons. In some ways, Ghosh even ups his game and puts the reader under his seductive spell. (Note: Since this novel is the second…
Sea of Poppies, the first novel of Amitav Ghosh’s Ibis Trilogy, has all the credentials of a major literary work. It is an historical novel where disparate characters, trapped by the confines of class, caste, race, religion, gender, addiction or sexuality, fight for the opportunity to escape, transform and find independence. But despite this apparent…
Staying On by Paul Scott is a wonderful little novel, a Booker Prize Winner and, having read Scott’s Raj Quartet, a novel that has changed what I thought of Scott’s writing. In the garden of Smith’s Hotel in Pankot, India, Tusker Smalley lies dead from an apparent heart attack. In his hand he still clutches…
It was on a 2008 trip to Goa that my parents and I came across Luis de Assis Correia’s book on the history of Goa at a book market. His Goa, Through the Mists of History from 10,000 BC-AD 1958; A Select Compilation on Goa’s Genesis looks to be a self-published book (it has no…
As my previous post of Six Books I Read But Did Not Review remains popular, it’s time to share some more books I have read since beginning my blog but did not review. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot A few years ago, after I had moved to Australia but before I…
The White Tiger is Aravind Adiga’s acclaimed debut novel which won the 2008 Booker Prize. An interesting take on the rags-to-riches story, its greatest achievements are its portrait of modern India from bottom to top and its powerful political statement; created without making the reader feel they are reading a political novel. In The White Tiger,…
A Division of the Spoils is Paul Scott’s conclusion to his Raj Quartet. As the Second World War draws to a close, and Indian Independence looks increasingly inevitable, both English and Indians alike are forced to ask themselves what place there is for them in a new India. Paul Scott’s appreciation for the complexities of…
