Page 2 - Books

Searches: Book explains how we turned to internet to understand ourselves

The strength of Searches, despite its banal moments, lies in the breathing space allowed to each digital experiment without judgments or definitive conclusions

David Szalay beats Kiran Desai to win 2025 Booker Prize for novel 'Flesh'

Hungarian British author David Szalay was named the winner of the Booker Prize 2025 for his novel Flesh', beating Kiran Desai's The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny' at a ceremony in London on Monday night. Szalay, 51, was presented with 50,000 pounds and a trophy by last year's Booker winner Samantha Harvey for his novel about an emotionally detached man who is unravelled by a series of events beyond his grasp. Using only the sparest of prose, this hypnotically tense and compelling book becomes an astonishingly moving portrait of a man's life, the Booker Prize judges said of their winning choice. Desai missed out on becoming only the fifth double winner in Booker Prize's 56-year history, having won the coveted literary prize for fiction back in 2006 for The Inheritance of Loss'. I wanted to write a book about global loneliness through the lens of a long, unresolved love story, Desai has said of her new novel. I wanted to write a present-day romance with an old-fashioned beauty. In t

Let My Country Awake: Miller's book omits nuances of the Ghadar movement

As Scott Miller writes in Let My Country Awake, the story of the anticolonial Ghadar movement, Indian migrant workers soon found themselves attracted to radical labour organisations

The Maker of Filmmakers: How Jagat Murari shaped filmmaking culture

The book is a compelling study of FTII's early years, revealing how great institutions can decay over time due to mismanagement and the failures of those entrusted to protect them

Waste Wars: How rich nations legally dump toxic waste on poor countries

How the rich world exploits loopholes to legally dump toxic waste on poor nations in Asia, Africa and South America

Lo Bir Sendra: Jaipal Singh's memoir speaks of an Adivasi in two worlds

If the text sometimes feels disjointed, it is, perhaps, because Singh was not writing for publication but to remember

Devils' Advocates: Is American foreign policy genuinely for sale?

Vogel traces the alarm over foreign lobbying to a well-known scandal from the 1930s in which some of America's top public relations men were charged

Mother Mary Comes To Me: The book goes beyond the mother-daughter sob story

Ms Roy's radical and radiant life is the subject of the book but the messaging around it has flattened a complex narrative into a sob story of a daughter wronged by her mother

Wall Street's original sin: Sorkin revisits the greed and glamour of 1929

Over the course of more than 400 pages, tha author narrates a fable of greed, corruption and incompetence to shock the conscience

On the Margins of Protection: How refugee rights are being redefined

With right-wing populism on the rise, refugee protection is seen as a problem. This book examines how protection works across contexts, shaped by history and geopolitics

Fly, Wild Swans: A memoir of China's ideological paralysis under Mao

In many ways, the book is Ms Jung's tribute and love letter to her mother, her "guardian angel"

Unsilenced: Book explains the social realities of an Indian prison

Seema Azad has been a known name in the human rights circle for a long time

ITEC at 60: Book revives forgotten chapter in India's global outreach

The Trumpian tariff and H1B visa dystopia would have looked less so from India's point of view if these initiatives were sustained, it now seems

The Zardari Presidency: Book offers revisionist view of Pakistan leader

This book is Mr Babar's account of Mr Zardari's five years as President from 2008 to 2013. This was a tumultuous period of Pakistan's history

Nautch Boy: Manish Gaekwad's book sheds light on lives of boys in a 'kotha'

Nautch, a corrupted pronunciation of naach, fascinated the author in his childhood. As a practice, the tawaifs didn't let their children near their performances and patrons

SC dismisses plea seeking ban on Salman Rushdie's book 'The Satanic Verses'

The Supreme Court on Friday refused to entertain a plea seeking a direction to ban Salman Rushdie's controversial novel "The Satanic Verses". The plea came up for hearing before a bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta. The counsel appearing for the petitioners referred to the Delhi High Court's November last year order. The high court had closed the proceedings on a petition challenging the Rajiv Gandhi government's decision to ban the import of "The Satanic Verses" in 1988, saying since authorities have failed to produce the relevant notification, it has to be presumed that it does not exist. "You are effectively challenging the judgement of the Delhi High Court," the bench observed, while dismissing the plea. The petition was filed in the apex court through advocate Chand Qureshi. It alleged the book was available due to the order passed by the high court. The Centre had banned the import of the Booker Prize-winning author's "The Satanic Verses" for law-and-order rea

Missing from the House: Tracing the political legacy of Muslim women MPs

Despite exclusion and patriarchy, 18 Muslim women have entered the Lok Sabha to date - but their absence from public discourse is stark. This book recalls their political legacy

Mujib's blunders: Manash Ghosh's book reveals how Rahman lost plots

The Power and the Plot Behind His Killing, "covers the troubled years after the freedom struggle, popularly known as the Liberation War, against the genocidal Pakistan Army"

Song of India: New book clarifies why Tagore composed the national anthem

Several songs competed to become India's anthem after Independence. Dr Mukherjee's book debunks myths about why Tagore composed his song and how it came to be chosen

S Muralidhar's book spotlights SC's fault lines and judicial fallibility

In the current discourse on the basic law of the country, the Constitution, leaders of both the ruling and the Opposition blocs are engaged in its competitive veneration, pronouncing it sacrosanct