Discussion on power inequalities

As the guests arrived, the room brightened up and a conversation began that would eventually go on to deeply invest in exploring the nature of power and of defiantly opposing the status quo.
18 August 2023, 08:55 AM

On moving

Reading moves you. The movement is emotional—you feel moved as you read, you feel moved by what you read. To read is to be moved—by the sheer joy and ecstasy on the pages, by the pain and heartache in the letters,
16 August 2023, 18:00 PM

Memory is a treacherous and wonderful thing

Around 14 years ago, I left my life behind in Nigeria. After almost half a decade spent in a land far from home, leaving felt crushing.
16 August 2023, 18:00 PM

Stories that move you

In keeping with the spirit of Partition of 1947, we have compiled a list of stories that deal with movements and migrations,
16 August 2023, 18:00 PM

Sports journalism and Bangladesh

Textbooks in Bangladesh tend to be written by foreign authors. Those that are written by Bangladeshi authors, emphasise on examples in a non-Bangladesh context.
9 August 2023, 18:00 PM

The straight and narrow vision of ‘Crook Manifesto’

Colson Whitehead’s sequel to his novel Harlem Shuffle (Doubleday, 2021) is a continuation of the exact same order.
9 August 2023, 18:00 PM

‘Bare life’ and Partition

“Can one break a country...Will the earth bleed?” asks eight-year-old Lenny in Bapsi Sidhwa’s Cracking India (1988)–a tale about Partition. “No one’s going to break India. It’s not made of glass!”
9 August 2023, 18:00 PM

The "original and thrilling": The Booker Prizes announces 2023 longlist

The novels are small revolutions, each seeking to energise and awaken the language. Together, they offer startling portraits of the current.
7 August 2023, 15:55 PM

What I mean when I say “listening to books”

Listening is stretching beyond ourselves and another, and if we were to listen to printed words on paper as non-verbal cues of communication, it too emits lower frequencies that moves us, beyond the I, towards new modes of knowledge.
4 August 2023, 12:55 PM

Tech bias: not a glitch, but a structural problem

With statistics backing her up, Broussard does a stellar job of portraying this bias for the readers with stories from individuals who have faced such discrimination. The book opens with the story of Robert Julian-Borchak Williams who gets wrongfully identified by a police facial recognition technology and gets taken into custody.
3 August 2023, 12:55 PM

An odyssey of love and loss

Having read an account of someone who stood by her husband and helped him through an assisted suicide out of love was extremely heart-wrenching.
2 August 2023, 14:55 PM

The bitter-sweet world of self-help books

The concept of self-improvement is by no means a new one, rather the notion is in the foundational structures of moral well-being. The centuries old Socrates commandment, “Know Thyself” is at the very crux of what self-improvement consists of.
1 August 2023, 14:55 PM

The Potenga harlots’ tale

In Koshobi, Jaladas paints the damp and dejected walls of Strandroad, Shahebpara, which is a local red-light district more than 300 years old.
29 July 2023, 14:55 PM

Remembering Mahasweta Devi: The blueprint of subaltern activism and literature

While novelists such as Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay and Sanjeeb Chandra Chattopadhyay adopted an ambiguous position on caste discourse in their writing, Mahasweta Devi's fiction explicitly delineates the Dalits and adivasis as political, social, and psychological beings embroiled in multiple levels of oppression.
28 July 2023, 05:00 AM

Bad kids, worse adults

If you are looking for something different from your next read—especially if you’re interested in reading a story that offers a window into another Asian culture—then Bad Kids by Zijin Chen might be a good choice. This book was an instant bestseller when it was published in China, and has since been adapted for the small screen.
26 July 2023, 18:00 PM

Leafing through this life

This century had started 14 years ago—and unlike the previous one—the world was not drafting 19-year-olds to a great war so that they could die in the trenches.
26 July 2023, 18:00 PM

'Small World City': A new speculative literary magazine on the horizon

The creators of Small World City believe that Dhaka’s literary community deserves better recognition and representation, both domestically and globally.
26 July 2023, 14:42 PM

An afternoon with Abeer Hoque and Nupu Press: A celebration of creativity

The cozy atmosphere was set up by Bookworm Bangladesh, with the owner Amina Rahman kicking things off. Both Press and Hoque read out excerpts from their own books.
23 July 2023, 14:50 PM

‘Sisters in the mirror’: Elora Shehabuddin’s response to the West’s idea of feminism

The book is especially relevant in the context of Bangalee women’s life because usually while talking about Islam and women, the West fails to take the South Asian Bangalee women into account.
22 July 2023, 14:55 PM

Of losses and languages: reviewing Han Kang’s 'Greek Lessons'

There is a sense of inexorable catharsis, and dare I say— spirituality—when the protagonists begin their journey into one another since they alone embody the ideas and predicaments of the text. 
21 July 2023, 09:00 AM