Page 6 - Book

Upamanyu wins JCB Prize 2024 for 'Lorenzo Searches for the Meaning of Life'

Writer Upamanyu Chatterjee on Saturday won the JCB Prize for Literature for his book "Lorenzo Searches for the Meaning of Life". Chatterjee's book, published by Speaking Tiger, follows the story of a young Italian man who starts leading a life of spirituality after an accident only to discover the banalities of the path. The award was announced at a ceremony at JCB India Headquarters in Faridabad. Chatterjee received a cash prize of Rs 25 lakh along with a trophy sculpted by Delhi artist duo, Thukral and Tagra, titled Mirror Melting'. "When I was writing it I thought it was one hell of a boring story but it seems to have worked, so thank you for that," Chatterjee said after receiving the award. The winning book was chosen by a jury headed by poet Jerry Pinto along with art historian Deepthi Sashidharan, writer Tridip Suhurd, filmmaker Shaunak Sen, and artist Aqui Thami. "For me, the book is both a small canvas, because it is a canvas inside a man's heart and soul. It is a faith .

Jerry Brotton's book delves into the history, significance of the compass

The book is not for those with severe inner ear imbalances: Chapter by chapter, Brotton hopscotches from east to south to north to west

Sara Ahmed's book offers a deep dive into the feminist killjoy perspective

The book begins with Ms Ahmed's story, but it can be an every woman story or every queer's story

The End of the Chinese Century? New book critiques BRI's flawed assumptions

The BRI has been compared to the US Marshall Plan launched after the end of the Second World War to enable the recovery of the war-ravaged economies of western Europe

'The Palestinian Laboratory' explores key issues in Israel-Gaza conflict

The book seeks to answer a crucial question: Why does violence against Palestinians fail to elicit meaningful empathy from powerful nations?

Giles Milton's book offers a gossipy glimpse into wartime elites, history

Milton's book follows the "scholarship lite" school of history writing

Take a leisurely walk, enjoy the sights, sounds and flavours of nostalgia

Sumana Roy's book celebrates the creativity of provincials, who became inventive because of deprivation. They take the cards that life has dealt them and start playing

India's China conflict and a JP angle in championing the 'Free Tibet' cause

In 'Muslim, Trader, Nomad, Spy', Sulmaan Wasif Khan writes about China's occupation of Tibet in 1950 and its attempts at assimilating an unfamiliar territory peopled by a strange mix of ethnicities

This book tells you about millennials' attitudes towards nearly everything

A M Gautam's 'Indian Millennials: Who Are They, Really?' deconstructs millennials by studying their behaviours towards body, food, culture, religion, spirituality, ideology, technology, and internet

Rushdie at the cutting edge

Knife is Rushdie's graphic account of the attack and his recovery interlaced with the love story of Rushdie and his current wife, Rachel Eliza Griffith

AI edition of books

In any case, AIs are known to be biased, to have hallucinations, and to lack a sense of reality. A shade of uncertainty thus remains

A destiny in Aligarh

In general, one's childhood is a scintilla of emotions, but in the author's case it appears to become a handy guide to survive a riot

Faith between the covers

The gods abhorred abstinence and even though the consequences were not always as dire as the one that Hippolytus faced, abjuring sex never went unpunished or unreformed in the ancient world

Propaganda vs facts

Three journalists join forces to debunk viral falsehoods on topics like love jihad, population jihad, and forced conversions with straightforward facts in their new book

A complex region encounters bigotry and prejudice

Robert Kaplan's latest book aims to offer a fresh survey of the 'Greater Middle East', but in doing so, it grossly simplifies complex political issues, reflecting American interests and prejudices

New book creates comprehensive directory of active archives in India

A new book, "Mapping of the Archives in India", aims to offer a "near encyclopedic picture" of active archives and their collections across the nation. Written by Ramesh Chandra Gaur, director of Kalanidhi Division of Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA), and research scholar Vismay Basu, the book is the result of collaboration between IGNCA and UNESCO to create a directory of archives in India. Through extensive literature surveys, the researchers identified 600 institutions across the country housing archives, resulting in the creation of 424 directories within the book. "These directories encompass comprehensive profiles of the contained archives, shedding light on aspects of conservation, digitisation, and archival perspectives. There is a dire need for Archival Science education in India, and these archives represent our legacy and must be safeguarded," Gaur said at the book launch on Thursday. In addition to basic information, thematic details like the nature of

Naipaul's India

A similar self-fashioning is evident in the two other books he wrote on India - A Wounded Civilization (1977) and A Million Mutinies Now (1990)

A practitioner's guide to elections

Former Chief Election Commissioner S Y Quraishi is honest and unreservedly generous in his book, which does not shy away from identifying the biggest threat to free and fair elections India

An insider's tell-all tales

In his revealing memoir, former finance secretary Subhash Chandra Garg offers a glimpse into what goes on behind closed-door meetings and in the corridors of power

Nature's art of living

A former business journalist discovers the art of happiness in the natural world