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…
Fatherland was Robert Harris’ bestselling debut. The interest in it is perfectly understandable; it promises an intriguing combination of a murder mystery in the fascinating setting of post-War Berlin – where Germany has won the war. A body has washed up on a riverbank near Berlin, Germany. It is soon identified as Josef Bühler, a…
We no longer have the words to describe Richard Feynman. ‘Brilliant’, ‘unique’ and ‘enigmatic’ do not serve him. Even the word ‘genius’ may have lost its power to describe him. Nevertheless, Genius is the title of James Gleick’s biography of the remarkable Richard Feynman. As the power of the word has depreciated through overuse, the…
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…
JM Roberts’ Ancient History is epic! A book whose impressive physically size is matched by its ambitious scope and illuminating format. This is one of those books where you need to put yourself in the mind of the author. When you do you realise that is simply not possible to cover this subject comprehensively; however…
The Shahnameh, the Persian Book of Kings, is an epic poem composed by Abolqasem Ferdowsi in the late-tenth century, early-eleventh century. It chronicles Persia’s legendary and historical past, through the lives of its kings, from the creation of the world to the seventh-century Arab conquest that brought Islam to Persia. It has been described as…
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…
