In the Orchard, the Swallows is a subtle poem to beauty lost, innocence ruined and sometimes what it takes to find your place back in the world. When I received a copy of this book, I was intrigued by the plot and immediately started reading it. When I read books related to a particular territory that is no longer accessible to the general population or is not what it used to be, a cord is struck within me and then it becomes very difficult for me to forget what I have read. In the Orchard, the Swallows is one such book.

In the foothills of a mountain range in Northern Pakistan, is a beautiful orchard. Or rather it used to be beautiful. The orchard is now neglected. No one takes care of it as it was once taken care of. Miles away, a young man has been released from prison. It is his story. His body – tortured and beaten tells the story of fifteen years of brutality. His family – now lost and the once love of his life, those are his stories to tell. He lands up at a stranger’s house and his story begins – of what once was and what is right now.

Peter Hobbs has created something else with this book. I had never heard of him before reading this book. I did not know who he was but after reading In the Orchard, the Swallows, I want to read more of what he has written or what he will. The beauty of the prose is an experience in itself – the descriptions of the lonely pomegranates hanging in the orchard, now no more there, will make your heartbreak in an instant. The writing could not have been simpler and evocative with the details. The emotions are in place and tug at the reader’s vulnerable heart.

In the Orchard, the Swallows is a book that you should not miss out on reading this year. It has all the elements that make a book memorable, without making it pretentious or phony. A read that I will recommend to everyone.

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It isn’t easy to write by mixing almost two genres together. It takes not only gumption but also some good writing skill. When I first started reading, “The Reluctant Detective” I did not think much of it. I mean come to think of it, here is an almost bored housewife (well not really bored) and she has the habit of poking her nose in other people’s affairs (but obviously – as the cliché would seem), till dead bodies turn up in quick succession around her and how she teams up with a detective friend to solve them.

So that is the plot in a nutshell. As I however read further (give it beyond the first three chapters), I was taken in into the book. Kay’s (Her name is Kanan Mehra) exaggerations and little vanities add the much needed humour in this one. Runa is the main detective, while it is Kay who happens to stumble on most clues as they go along solving the crime/s.

What I found most fascinating in the entire book, was how Ms. Manral has managed to create a character (interesting one at that you might note) out of the ordinary, whose major problem is controlling her cellulite and being first in queue at the next sale. Kay’s character is well-etched and for one most housewives would be able to relate to her, or at least some parts of who she is. The humour in the book doesn’t let the mystery element get ignored and vice-versa.

The book strings all elements in place – humour, mystery and the events of ordinary day-to-day living. I liked the writing. It is to the point and does not delve too much into descriptions, which makes for a light Sunday read. The Reluctant Detective is a read that I would recommend to almost everyone. It is fast, well paced and will keep you glued till you finish it.

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The Wednesday Soul is nothing like you have read before. It is funny, sarcastic, doesn’t-try-too-hard, simply written, and a whole lot of afterlife. Yes! You heard that right. The book is about the afterlife, or as the tag line goes, “the afterlife, with sunglasses”.

The protagonist, Nyra Dubey, dies in the first chapter and that’s where the story takes off. Nyra – the infamous vigilante, the Delhiite who knows how to deal with its men, is reduced to yet another corpse. Of course, she doesn’t want that. She wants vengeance and from none other than Death’s masters for the love she has had to leave behind on planet Earth. Things lead to more things and there are creatures’ unknown, mighty eagles and bad puns that have the power to kill.

The plot has never been heard of. It is too experimental, some might say. I loved the book. The writing could not have been simpler and Pant knows how to inject humour in every page. Death to him is not a tragedy; it is just another topic that can be written about keeping funny in mind. The writing is taut and perfect. The right amount of sarcasm and sometimes somewhere an emotion will take you by surprise. Sorabh Pant knows his audience and also what they expect out of him. A sequel is in the offing so I am definitely most excited about it, as somewhere some characters had too short a span in this one and I for one wanted to know more about them.

Sample this: “Living in India you automatically earn an honorary Ph. D. in Queues. You study them closely as you wait for licenses, liquor, movies, and brides i.e. shaadi.com” See what I mean! This is how he writes. I would definitely recommend, “The Wednesday Soul” to one and all.

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Writing about relationships is not an easy task. The writing has to come from a personal place, known and sometimes unknown to the writer. While reading Overwinter, I had mixed feelings – sometimes of joy but mostly of sadness and Ratika Kapur, intelligently has managed to evoke these emotions in her reader/s.

Overwinter is not an easy book to forget. It has been two days since I have finished it and cannot get it out of my head. Ketaki is your typical urbanite – a well paying job and a life that seems perfect, before the most important man in her life – her maternal aunt Neeta’s husband falls into a coma, almost nearing death. Ketaki blissfully goes on from man to man, in order to hide her pain and wanting some connection with her aunt. Her father’s arrival from New York leads to the wall being broken through a secret long held in the family. The secret then begins to shape the lives of the characters and what end will come out of this story.

Overwinter made me see my relationships differently and assess them – because sometimes relationships need to be assessed. Ratika Kapur writes with urgency, almost speeding somewhere and that works for the book. The descriptions and building of the atmosphere is critical to the book, which again the author does justice to in a beautiful manner. Ratika Kapur knows the pulse of what might work considering she used to work for a publishing house before venturing into writing.

For me the book worked on the level mainly because of its language. Every word fit every emotion and that matters a lot to me while reading a book. It just shows the skill of a writer, in addition to the plot and the storyline. I have enjoyed reading Overwinter and cannot recommend it enough.

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Narcopolis by Jeet Thayil is a book that doesn’t leave you till you have finished it. It is not only a disturbing read, but also highly intense. It captures all elements of Bombay, who is coincidentally the hero or heroine of the story, which is what I loved the most about the novel. Bombay is the protagonist as it always is – harsh, sometimes sweet, sometimes bitter, sometimes cunning and sometimes giving, and the action of the book is set here, for its characters to play on this wide canvas, to let their emotions and feelings take a different turn altogether.

Narcopolis is everything you imagined but were too scared to say it out aloud – blue smoke, drugs, opium drug dens, heroin and Bombay at the heart of it all – the glitter of the city juxtaposed with its bleakness, its gutters and its diseases of race, class, religion, violence and death.

Amidst all this is Dimple and this is her heart-breaking tale. Dimple is a eunuch and her story unfolds as does the story of the city and then there is also the enigmatic Mr. Lee from China who lends a totally different approach to the story. The story takes you on a roller-coaster ride – and sometimes the funny part is, you don’t know which turn is going to come next. Bombay has various aspects to it as a city and Mr. Thayil has beautifully explored each and every one of its aspect.

The writing is packed with punches and more. It will not make you want to keep the book down at any point. At the same time you feel really bad when the book ends, because you don’t want it to. I remember Jeet Thayil reading poetry once at a book launch and I wondered why he didn’t write fiction. Now that he has, I am wondering when the next book will be out. All in all, Narcopolis is a great read and I would recommend it to all.

One icon that instantly comes to my mind is “Coco Chanel” and it is not because of the laurels. It is because of the life she led. So when I received a detailed biography of Chanel’s life, I jumped at it and finished it in a matter of two days. Prior to this I had seen the movie based on her life, “Coco Chanel” starring Shirley MacLaine (who by the way made a perfect Chanel in her later years) and wanted to know about the designer who ruled the fashion scene for years.

Lisa Chaney’s book, “Chanel – An Intimate Life” is the most comprehensive biography there is on Chanel’s life and I say this after the research I have done on works written on her. Chanel not only chronicles Coco’s life before she turned Coco, but also proves to be an entertaining read.

The sadness and deprivation of her early years are heartbreaking – when the family did not have enough to eat and survive. Lisa then moves on from here to her emergence into fashionable society and the love affairs that defined her, to the man she loved the most and lost (Arthur ‘Boy’ Capel), to the point when she became a brand thereby changing the face of fashion to the war years as well as the loneliness of her later years to the re-emergence of Chanel in fashion.

Chaney clearly has the extraordinary ability to enter into and make her readers also understand the lives of people who were closely connected to Chanel. The writing did get pedantic in parts; however I ignored it because the rest of it was beautifully written. I liked how the author described the times Chanel lived in and how difficult it was then for any “new fashion sense” to make its presence felt. The analysis of the artistic scene then (Dali, Picasso, Cocteau) had a great impact on Chanel’s work and Lisa has given us a brilliant take there in most chapters.

Chaney’s book is an honest attempt to detail one of the most talked about lives in Fashion. It is a moving portrayal of a strong woman who did not let go of what she thought and believed in. Chanel makes for a great read.

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Coco Chanel: An Intimate Life

Jeff Kinney does it again! One doesn’t tire of reading the journal/diary of Greg Heffley and this time he is back with twice the fun and antics of Rowley and him. I remember when I first started reading this series, only three of them had been published and I finished them in all under two hours. I also remember not only recommending them to friends and family, but also gifting them the first book. Needless to say that I love this series.

The book is set between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Greg needs to be good so Santa can be good to him in return. He and Rowley decide to be good boys till Christmas Eve. However, all does not go well as planned. They are accused of vandalizing school property and before any action can be taken, there is a blizzard in the season and the ground is covered in three feet of snow. This only means that Greg is locked with his family in his house and cannot step out.

My favourite part in the book was the flashback when Greg’s younger brother Manny is just a newborn and Greg’s mother buys him a doll to get used to the idea of being a big brother. The book is hilarious. It has so many moments of Greg and his brothers (Rodrick and Manny) stuck at home, that there were times I actually laughed out loud.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid is one of those books I wished was published when I was growing up. I have enjoyed the drawings and the prose with every single issue, but this time it was very-well written. Though the book is definitely American and Indian kids might have a bit of a problem relating to the content in some parts, I would still highly recommend Diary of a Wimpy Kid Series to every kid.

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Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever

Short stories have always been close to my heart. More than novellas and novels. I do not know why but they are. Short stories are more compassionate – I do not know why again but I think they are. Honestly sometimes they also say more than full-length novels can and I have repeatedly said and maintain that.

The minute I started reading, “The Selected Stories of Merce Rodoreda”, I knew there was something different about this one. These 30 stories address every grim complexity of life and longing, heartache (very subtly done), capturing the necessary elements of chaos and peace. I had not heard of Merce Rodoreda before this book, and I am certain most people have not.

Merce Rodoreda’s stories take the extra leap that is required – of venturing into the unknown and writing something so worthwhile. For instance, in, “Friday June 8” a homeless girl ties a rock around her new born baby’s throat, a product of rape and throws her into the river. Shocking? Yes! But it is the prose that is used while writing this which will get you to weep silently. Stories such as these make you wonder: Should I continue reading this? And you know that you must, because it is about the writing and the delicate plots that will make you want to.

“Before I Die” is another such story. A housewife tries to come to terms with her husband’s past love, who she got to know of through the secret letters in his suitcase. The emotion and sensibility of the wife are well captured. “Carnival” on the other hand is a simple and poignant love story (I can safely say that), of a man and a woman (strangers) dressed in carnival outfits and walking together.

Most of the stories are short and that’s how it should really be – giving away some and hiding some. The stories come from three different collections published in 1958, 1978, and the last one seems to have been collected after her death. The stories are published in a chronological order and as the reader reads along, the different writing styles are clear – from simple to more experimental towards the end.

There is wide range to these stories, and enough and more for every kind of reader. Rodoreda goes into the heart of the human condition and churned out these brilliant stories. I would highly recommend this one, as I am all for short stories.

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The Selected Stories of Merce Rodoreda

I love reading novels centered primarily on women. I need no more than that to engage me while I am reading. So I was surprised when I received a galley from Harper a couple of months ago, titled, “The World We Found” by Thrity Umrigar and I was sucked in to the story from the word, Go. Let me also add here that the book is solely about four friends who are women and about their lives.

Laleh, Kavita, Armaiti and Nishta were four close friends in their Bombay college days 30 years ago. They were also revolutionaries fighting for causes and rights. However, as years have passed by, their lives are diverged; they have lost touch and have little in common but the one strong fact, of being friends. Tragedy strikes when Armaiti reaches out from America with news of Cancer and this is their last chance to be together as what they were.

The book works on various levels – friendship, love (friends and their lives with their spouses or not), the years they spent together and apart, the Bombay riots of 1992, and amidst all of this, the friends’ individualities – Laleh, the equal in her relationship, a rebel of sorts, Kavita – the successful architect, a lesbian, hiding the most important aspect of her life from her friends, Armaiti – who went away to America and Nishta – who married her college sweetheart and is now a different person due to him.

The husbands play their roles in the book, however mostly in the background, though without them the story wouldn’t have propelled ahead. Thrity Umrigar’s writing is weaved into layers and they unfold little by little, leaving the reader surprised and shocked, depending on the situation. The story is told through the perspectives of the four women and despite using this technique; the story has the fluidity it needs.

The characters are strong, introspective women. They do not shy away from what they have to say and how they must act. Umrigar’s women are bold, intelligent, loving and at the same time individualistic. The story is not something which is unusual or brilliant, it is however the writing and the pace that makes it what it is – a wondrous read, which will make the reader understand friendships better and how long lasting they are despite death looming over one of the friends. I would recommend this book to one and all. A must read according to me.

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The World We Found: A Novel

If you think an author cannot successfully manage a book in less than 200 pages, then think again. Or better yet, read, “We the Animals” by Justin Torres. It is the kind of book that you will read once in a lifetime and with assurance I can say that you will be blown by it. We the Animals is a not a happy book (though it is infused with moments of happiness). It is neither a tragic tale. It is a slice-of-life so to say, of a ride through a childhood of three “animals” and their dysfunctional parents.

“We the Animals” is not something like I have read before. It can be called a grouping of stories or just a plan simple novel. It is about three boys and their growing up years in up-state New York by their Irish-Italian-American Mother and Puerto Rican father. The story is told from the viewpoint of the youngest son (who throughout the book is nameless), who loves and cherishes his older brothers and is also not quite like them. There are vignettes that build the story, just like “The House on Mango Street” by Sandra Cisneros.

One obviously would expect some amount of latent madness and dysfunctionality running throughout the book, which is there; however, there are also moments of happiness and light, which balance the plot and structure. For instance, in one story, Ma refuses to answer the phone. She knows it is her husband and she doesn’t answer the phone. The entire piece is told through the events that occur while the phone is ringing in the background. The feeling of reading this is surreal and magical.

By far, my favourite piece in the entire book is the opening story, “We Wanted More” which sets the context and tone of the entire book. The sparse language used in almost every chapter is commendable, as it also happens to be intense in most places and touches the right chord. It therefore becomes very hard to believe that this is a debut work.

Justin Torres knows how to put up the book, exactly the way he saw it – intense, raw and rough. There are no smooth edges and shouldn’t be when writing a book of this nature. Torres makes you feel that you are going through a family album while reading the book. Each picture and each snapshot is telling a tale of its own. It is a complex study of family dynamics and written with a lot of substance.

While reading, “We the Animals”, there were a lot of moments I was choked up, however I had to let that pass and focus on reading the book. The reason I mention is to make the reader understand the power of a well-written book. We the Animals is one of the most beautiful books I have read this year and I am not hesitant to say this right at the beginning of the year, also because the book was published in 2011. It will break your heart and mend it right back. It will also make you see life differently. I highly recommend it to one and all.

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We the Animals: A novel