Trials and Tribulations by Fire

Name: The Goat Thief Author: Perumal Murugan Translator: N. Kalyan Raman Publisher: Juggernaut Pages: 205 A lot of interest gets generated when a celebrated author comes under intense scrutiny for his ideas offered in the public arena. Media hyperventilated on the issue of Perumal Murugan's offering, One Part Woman , hurting the sentiments of a particular community. Perumal Murugan's latest offering, The Goat Thief, translated by N. Kalyan Raman, and published by Juggernaut, is a collection of short stories. Each story is similar to a different emotion in the bouquet called life. A master storyteller, Perumal Murugan, has woven tales around household objects like a salt shaker, the rice vat, the toilet pot, and so on and engaged the reader with the finesse of a magician. Each story is unique in presentation and relates to the mundaneness of our daily lives. Readers can relate very well to one or most stories. Like a master craftsman wielding his instrument, Perumal Mur...

Name of the book: A Hundred Little Flames Author: Preeti Shenoy Publisher: Westland Pages: 400 Ease of reading: 4/5 Time to complete: 3-4 hours Preeti Shenoy, the name invokes images of stories about women going off to complete their to-do lists, dealing with abandonment, and the usual brouhaha about worthless men and loyal wives. Preeti nailed it more than once with her heart-wrenching stories. AHLF is the story of Aryan and his grandpa, Gopal Shanker. Aryan travels from Pune to a remote village in Kerala and starts living with Gopal. Their lives intermerge and Aryan discovers little endearing things about himself, his father, and his grumpy grandpa. Like how old houses are built to take you on a journey to another world, in this story too, Aryan and Gopal traverse back in time to unravel certain forgotten memories. During the course of their daily conversations, Aryan discovers facets of his near and dear ones and marvels at the way relationships change once harsh truths su...