Book Excerpts

Jungle Nama is Amitav Ghosh’s verse adaptation of an episode from the legend of Bon Bibi, a tale popular in the villages of the Sundarban, which also lies at the heart of the novel The Hungry Tide. Here are some exclusive excerpts introducing readers to the magic of the Sundarban! To read

Chinese Whiskers by Pallavi Aiyar is set against the landscape of contemporary Beijing, seen through the eyes of two cats, Tofu and Soyabean. This charming fable interweaves real episodes in recent Chinese history such as the Olympic Games, the SARS virus, and tainted pet-food scandals with a richly imagined world! Read

Drawing on the wisdom of the ancients, from the Aztecs and the Iliad to the Irish Wake, Nine Rules to Conquer Death provides the answer to those eternal mortal fears and longings. Kevin Toolis distils insights drawn from millennia of human experience into a profound and punchy guide to dying – and living –

How to Be a Writer is peppered with nuggets of practical advice for every person who is aspiring to write and be published, all told in Ruskin Bond’s characteristic understated, tongue-in-cheek, humorous style. So, what is it that a person requires the most to become a writer? A love of

Edited by acclaimed writer Ki. Rajanarayanan, Along With the Sun is a unique anthology of short stories from the ‘Karisal’ or ‘Black Soil’ region of Tamil Nadu. Here the rain plays hide-and-seek, sometimes oppressing them with drought, sometimes with floods; caste and religion still form a large part of the social