Missing Person

Patrick Modiano is not a popular household name, anywhere not even in the Anglophone academic and literary world.
13 September 2015

Moulana Ziauddin (from Nabojatok)

Every now and then when free He would stand next to me.
11 September 2015

WAITING FOR THE STORM

It's happening again. A familiar rage unfolds its sticky wings within the captive interior of my chest: a monstrous butterfly emerging gracelessly from its cocoon.
11 September 2015

Akaash Bhora Surjo Tara

The sky so full of stars
4 September 2015

Comics and Graphic Novels in Education

I remember reading books that had long descriptions. Some writers do love to describe. JRR Tolkien, for instance, is one of those fantasy gurus who created a world that is beyond our . . . no, not imagination—the conceptions of the elves, ogres, goblins, etc. had already existed inside our small vocabulary boxes before Tolkien's words pierced through our thought bubbles and gave birth to an Orc and a world beyond our, yes, expectation.
4 September 2015

The Maidens' Club

If you grew up as a teenager in the 1960s (and in the 1950s, or in the early1970s), and had knowledge and experience of the life led by the upper crust society in then East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), going through Niaz Zaman's The Maidens' Club might very well bring about a sense of déjà vu or nostalgia, or both, in you.
30 August 2015

On Rereading Jajabor's Drishtipaat and Alice Munro's Family Furnishings

As you get older, you start to miss some of the books you have read in the past at different stages of your life. Sometimes what drives this yearning is nostalgia, a memorable moment in the past, or often a reference to a character from a narrative. At least among my friends, how often we refer to Amit Roy, Srikanto, or Constance during conversations, blogs, or on Facebook!
30 August 2015

My Father Abul Hussain

Poets are expected to be “odd characters,” eccentric and reclusive, a riddle and a mystery. They live in a world of their own.
28 August 2015

FROM KATHARINE HART'S DIARY

I cannot believe I am sitting next to him, yet again, on a plane. How many times we have done this, how many flights, transfers, holidays, my passport and ticket always with him, even my boarding card; he was the man, the head of the family, he held the travel documents.
28 August 2015

Too Much for One Book

Nobel laureate J.M. Czoetzee's “The Childhood of Jesus” came out in 2013 as a cryptic fable exploring innocence, destiny, diaspora, maternal love and the philosophy of the abyss that is human affection. And it's the kind that polarises the reading population.
26 August 2015

Debating the Ancient and Present: A Conversation with Romila Thapar, Edited by Sasanka Perera

The 'Past' decides the 'Present' in India. The past is an everyday word, in politics, academics, culture and science in India.
23 August 2015

Political Parties in Bangladesh: Challenges of Demcratization, Author: Rounaq Jahan

The book Political Parties in Bangladesh Challenges of Democratization written by Professor Dr. Rounaq Jahan and published by the Prothoma Prokashon is indeed a timely endeavor.
23 August 2015

Sreesree Chaitannya Charitamrita Avidhan: A Lexicon of Medieval Bengali Thesaurus

Sreesree Chaitannya Charitamrita Avidhan is a lexicon enriched with the words and phrases found in the maxims and discourses propagated by Sree Chaitannya Mahaprabhu (1486-1534), a highly venerated monk and theologian in the history of the Indian Subcontinent.
23 August 2015

English Vinglish

Whenever Indians, Bangladeshis or Pakistanis come together to discuss literature, past and present, the question of English inevitably arises.
21 August 2015

The Night of 16th January, 1955

What? You too, my friend? Are you dead in that land you fled to last year, where you chose life for yourself (as you told me at the Coffee House on your last evening in Lahore, a week before you left Pakistan for good), and those two children and the woman, for whom you would have chosen – and once did choose – death with as little hesitation.
21 August 2015

Bangladeshi origin Zia Haider’s novel wins Britain's oldest literary prize

Bangladeshi born writer Zia Haider Rahman wins the James Tait Black Literary Prizes, Britain's oldest literary award, for his debut novel In the Light of What We Know.
18 August 2015

Celebration & Other Stories

The history of Bangla literature dates back to the seventh century. The richness of this literature cannot be understood by the world
16 August 2015

Women, Land and Power in Bangladesh: Jhagrapur Revisited

ENNEKE Arens has undertaken a study of a village called Baniapukur (which she has called Jhagrapur as a pseudonym) in two phases:
16 August 2015

The Narrow Road to the Deep North

THIS book was the Winner of the Man Booker Prize 2014. Forever after, there were for them only two sorts of men: the men who were on
9 August 2015

MODI Demystified

NARENDRA Modi is one of the most controversial politicians dominating contemporary India. Never before have we had a leader like him,
9 August 2015