BOOK REVIEW: FICTION / Let the queen rest in peace
23 October 2025, 14:55 PM
Book Review: Nonfiction / Charting the south’s path
22 October 2025, 18:00 PM
FICTION BOOK REVIEW: Fragments of memory and regret
22 October 2025, 18:00 PM
ESSAY / Leonard Cohen: Verses of mercy and turmoil
22 October 2025, 13:45 PM
THE SHELF / 3 Partition stories for young readers
21 October 2025, 13:45 PM
BOOK REVIEW: FICTION / A bit of Fry & Homer
18 October 2025, 11:15 AM
Fiction / Free at last
17 October 2025, 18:58 PM
REFLECTIONS / Autumnal offerings for seasonal readers
17 October 2025, 18:58 PM
THE SHELF / 5 books to rescue you from brainrot
17 October 2025, 14:45 PM
How Pakistan viewed ‘71: Academics and publishers discuss
To understand the attitude of the adversaries of the Liberation War, I went to collect the data for this book and found that Pakistanis are defending themselves.
22 June 2023, 10:18 AM
Into the intersection of identity & violence
It is worth considering that, according to historian Yuval Noah Harari, we may not be able to fully evade violence, as our evolutionary past has instilled certain inclinations within us that could be linked to violence.
22 June 2023, 08:44 AM
'Independence': A painfully poignant Partition story
Divakaruni has a message to send with this novel. To her, independence entails not just liberation or freedom from subjugation, it also means doing the right thing for oneself and for the people around us.
22 June 2023, 08:16 AM
Riverdale can be anytime, anywhere
Sweet, colourful, and funny, Archie comics were one of the only graphic narratives available for people who weren’t interested in superheroes and really gritty, edgy comics like Batman.
22 June 2023, 07:53 AM
Scrounging revelations out of music
I don't remember at what point in life I learned to recognize the fallacy behind the not-like-other-girls phenomenon and discarded it for an all-encompassing love for female friendship and solidarity, in acceptance of femininity in all its forms. But I do know that Taylor Swift played a significant role in it.
20 June 2023, 12:46 PM
‘Good books will always find good readers’: Dipankar Das
The crux of the issue is whether or not good books are reaching the intended readers.
20 June 2023, 05:27 AM
Cormac McCarthy: A great American novelist
For a nation that cannot boast of a Cervantes or Rabindranath, there will always be a need to find an All-American, a unifier who assures them of their place in the hallowed halls of literature. Cormac McCarthy, more than any other writer of his generation, was equipped to shoulder that title.
19 June 2023, 12:54 PM
A day of festivities to celebrate 19 years of Baatighar
Baatighar has organised an evening of music and discussion at its Dhaka outlet on June 18, 2023, from 6 PM onwards.
18 June 2023, 10:44 AM
Across the Spider-Verse: Faithfulness to the comics
Bendis intentionally put a stark difference between Peter and Miles, so that comic book fans would not feel that their favourite web-swinger was being replaced by just another goody-two-shoes, just with a racial make-up switch.
16 June 2023, 12:59 PM
Can we process trauma through writing?
Iffat Nawaz, together with The Daily Star’s Books & Literary Editor, Sarah Anjum Bari, will discuss the act and impact of processing traumatic memories through writing.
15 June 2023, 10:55 AM
Lovers, liars and lurkers in the library
Hannah's protagonist Freddie is attempting to make progress on her novel by working at the Boston Public Library, when she—along with three of the people she is sharing a table with—are transfixed by the sound of a woman screaming somewhere in the Library.
14 June 2023, 12:55 PM
Yuval Noah Harari’s take on the history of humanity
About the history of the ancient people, Harari skilfully depicts the men and the women, nature, and the environment of prehistoric times, their patterns, and the characteristics of the rough life in the wild-mountainous region.
12 June 2023, 13:00 PM
Himal Fiction Fest to showcase the next era of South Asian storytelling
Over the two-week period, six original short stories by emerging South Asian writers will be published on Himal Southasia’s website
11 June 2023, 13:00 PM
Exploring nostalgia over coffee
Although the story doesn’t talk about how this particular cafe became a time-travelling spot to begin with, reading through to the last page made me feel that the café was always there-since the beginning of time.
9 June 2023, 13:00 PM
A personal quest to explore the core essence of ‘Bengaliness’
We Bengalis are very much part of a collectivist society, where ‘private’ matters are communal, and everyone can have some opinions about ‘other’s business. We describe that as our own unique way of looking after each other and maintaining ‘social well beings’.
8 June 2023, 07:24 AM
Professing criticism: On Naeem Mohaiemen's new book of essays
Although the book is written in English, he has plenty of doubt to dispense about the language, its usefulness, acceptance, and communicability when it comes to writing and creating art in Bangladesh.
8 June 2023, 06:59 AM
Shantona Shantuma: A pioneering manga artist duo in Bangladesh
The ambition was to popularise Bangladeshi manga. At first the initiative was voluntary but later they succeeded to commercialise the publication.
7 June 2023, 13:00 PM
UPL Summer Book Fair 2023 underway
Some of UPL’s best selling titles include 'Political Parties in India' (2022) by Abdul Razzaq and a Bangla translation of Yuval Noah Harari’s 'Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind' (2014).
4 June 2023, 15:00 PM
Snapshots of history—Golam Mustafa meets Manzoor Alam Beg
Modhurimay Alap (Swapno ‘71, 2023) transcribes two days of conversations with the late Golam Mustafa, first Director of Photography of Bangladesh Television.
3 June 2023, 07:58 AM
Like father, unlike son: Martin Amis’s place in literature
Perhaps Martin Amis’s works do not grab me for the most part because it veers too far away from the humanism of, say, Saul Bellow—a writer Martin greatly admires and has written about extensively.
3 June 2023, 07:39 AM