BOOKS YOU DEFINITELY SHOULDN’T MISS THIS WINTER

Chirdeep Malhotra . Updated: 11/24/2021 9:57:36 AM Books and Authors

Compiled by: Chirdeep Malhotra

1) “Ramrao: The Story of India's Farm Crisis” by Jaideep Hardikar

(Non-Fiction | Format: Paperback/Kindle | MRP: 319 INR)

BLURB: One morning in 2014, Ramrao Panchleniwar, an ordinary cotton grower in Maharashtra's infamous Vidarbha region, consumed two bottles of pesticide in a bid to commit suicide. But he miraculously survived.
In “Ramrao”, rural journalist Jaideep Hardikar attempts to put a face to India's unending farm crisis with his story. He takes the reader on a journey of the everyday life of an Indian farmer, his daily struggles, his desperation to come out of his situation, his inability and many failings, the quagmire of issues he faces, and how he comes to a pass where he chooses to put an end to it all.
The result of years of committed reportage, this is an evocative read that rescues an ordinary life from obscurity and turns it into an essential biography for our times.



2) “Move: How Mass Migration Will Reshape the World – and What It Means for You” by Parag Khanna

(Non-Fiction | Format: Paperback/Kindle | MRP: 559 INR)

BLURB: Where will you live in 2030? Where will your children settle in 2040? What will the map of humanity look like in 2050?
In the 60,000 years since people began colonising the continents, a recurring feature of human civilisation has been mobility - the constant search for resources and stability. Seismic global events - wars and genocides, revolutions and pandemics - have only accelerated the process. The map of humanity isn't settled, not now, not ever.
As climate change tips toward full-blown crisis, economies collapse, governments destabilise and technology disrupts, we're entering a new age of mass migrations - one that will scatter both the dispossessed and the well-off. Which areas will people abandon and where will they resettle? Which countries will accept or reject them? As today's world population, which includes four billion restless youth, votes with their feet, what map of human geography will emerge?
Here global strategy advisor Parag Khanna provides an illuminating and authoritative vision of the next phase of human civilisation - one that is both mobile and sustainable. As the book explores, in the years ahead people will move to where the resources are and technologies will flow to the people who need them, returning us to our nomadic roots while building more secure habitats. Move is a fascinating look at the deep trends that are shaping the most likely scenarios for the future. Most importantly, it guides each of us as we determine our optimal location on humanity's ever-changing map.



3) “The Earthspinner” by Anuradha Roy

(Fiction | Format: Hardcover/Kindle | MRP: 475 INR)

BLURB: When he wakes up, Elango knows his life has changed. His dream will consume him until he gives it shape. The potter must create a terracotta horse whose beauty will be reason enough for its existence. Yet he cannot pin down from where it has galloped into his mind – the Mahabharata, or Trojan legend, or his anonymous potter-ancestors. Nor can he say where it belongs – in a temple compound, within a hotel lobby, or with Zohra, whom he despairs of ever marrying.
The astral, indefinable force driving Elango towards forbidden love and creation has unleashed other currents. A neighbourhood girl begins her bewildering journey into adulthood, developing a complicated relationship with him. A lost dog adopts him, taking over his heart. Meanwhile, his community is driven by inflammatory passions of a different kind. Here, people, animals, and even the gods live on a knife's edge and the consequences of daring to dream against the tide are cataclysmic.
Moving between India and England, “The Earthspinner” reflects the many ways in which the East encounters the West. It breathes new life into ancient myths, giving allegorical shape to the war of fanaticism against reason and the imagination. It is an intricate, wrenching novel about the changed ways of loving and living in the modern world.



4) “The Book of Passing Shadows”, by C.V. Balakrishnan, translated by T.M. Yesudasan

(Fiction | Format: Paperback/Kindle | MRP: 315 INR)

BLURB: Set in a Malabar village of Christian settlers, The Book of Passing Shadows, translated from the Malayalam original Aayusinte Pusthakam, tells the story of a family’s fall from grace, and their journey to redemption.
As the narrative unravels against the wider inner conflict between bodily temptations and spiritual aspirations, the sins of one generation seem to visit ominously upon the next. Through his journey from an innocent childhood to a ruined adolescence, Yohannan loses everyone he knows as ‘family’—a father who is a convicted felon, a grieving mother who passes away while her husband is in prison, an elder sister with prospects who elopes to build a better life, a grandfather who embraces death after committing a sin, and a best friend and lover who chooses religion over domestic life. The only solace he finds is in the loving companionship of a grieving widow, Sara, who has been equally wronged by fate and unbundles her woes with him.
Faith plays a pivotal role—provides a mythical, ethical, and moral scaffolding of this heart-rending novel, which resonates with the agony and pathos of the human spirit caught in the travails of earthly life.
Written in a sublime style made lyrical with a biblical cadence and rich in scriptural allusions, this passionate and visionary narrative has remained popular with readers since it was first published in 1984.


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