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Midnight's children by Salman Rushdie ( Everyman's Library)

Midnight's children by Salman Rushdie ( Everyman's Library)

₹800

Anyone who has spent time in the developing world will know that one of Bombay's claims to fame is the enormous film industry that churns out hundreds of musical fantasies each year. The other, of course, is native son Salman Rushdie -- less prolific, perhaps than Bollywood, but in his own way just as fantastical. Though Rushdie's novels lack the requisite six musical numbers that punctuate every Bombay talkie, they often share basic plot points with their cinematic counterparts. Take, for example, his 1980 Booker Prize-winning Midnight's Children: two children born at the stroke of midnight on August 15, 1947 -- the moment at which India became an independent nation -- are switched in the hospital. The infant scion of a wealthy Muslim family is sent to be raised in a Hindu tenement, while the legitimate heir to such squalor ends up establishing squatters' rights to his unlucky hospital mate's luxurious bassinet. Switched babies are standard fare for a Hindi film, and one can't help but feel that Rushdie's world-view -- and certainly his sense of the fantastical -- has been shaped by the films of his childhood. But whereas the movies, while entertaining, are markedly mediocre, Midnight's Children is a masterpiece, brilliant written, wildly unpredictable, hilarious and heartbreaking in equal measure. Rushdie's narrator, Saleem Sinai, is the Hindu child raised by wealthy Muslims. Near the beginning of the novel, he informs us that he is falling apart -- literally: I mean quite simply that I have begun to crack all over like an old jug -- that my poor body, singular, unlovely, buffeted by too much history, subjected to drainage above and drainage below, mutilated by doors, brained by spittoons, has started coming apart at the seams. In short, I am literally disintegrating, slowly for the moment, although there are signs of an acceleration. In light of this unfortunate physical degeneration, Saleem has decided to write his life story, and, incidentally, that of India's, before he crumbles into "(approximately) six hu

2 weeks ago
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Sense and Sensibility

Sense and Sensibility

₹250

About the Book: Sense and Sensibility A wonderfully entertaining tale revolving around two starkly different sisters . . . When their father dies, leaving his entire estate to his firstwifes son, Elinor and Marianne Dashwood, along with their youngestsister, and their mother, the second Mrs Dashwood, are leftpenniless and homeless. A kind and generous relative, however,offers them a small cottage to live in. As they all try to settle into their new lives, the wild andimpulsive Marianne goes through a whirlwind romance with thegallant and impetuous John Willoughby, and the quiet, reservedElinor develops an affection for Edward Ferrars, the brother-in-lawof her half-brother, John Dashwood. But love is never easy . . . Caught in the trials andtribulations of love, the two sisters-one flamboyant and the otherreticent-learn about love, happiness, and life as they try tograpple with their new circumstances. This is a moving story aboutthe emotions and feelings of two young girls trying to find theirway through life. About the Author: Jane Austen Though the domain of Jane Austens novels was as circumscribed asher life, her caustic wit and keen observation made her the equalof the greatest novelists in any language. Born the seventh childof the rector of Steventon, Hampshire, on December 16, 1775, shewas educated mainly at home. At an early age she began writingsketches and satires of popular novels for her familysentertainment. As a clergymans daughter from a well-connectedfamily, she had an ample opportunity to study the habits of themiddle class, the gentry, and the aristocracy. At twenty-one, shebegan a novel called "The First Impressions" an early version ofPride and Prejudice. In 1801, on her fathers retirement, the familymoved to the fashionable resort of Bath. Two years later she soldthe first version of Northanger Abby to a London publisher, but thefirst of her novels to appear was Sense and Sensibility, publishedat her own expense in 1811. It was followed by Pr

3 weeks ago
The Alchemist

The Alchemist

₹175

Like the one-time bestseller Jonathan Livingston Seagull, The Alchemist presents a simple fable, based on simple truths and places it in a highly unique situation. And though we may sniff a bestselling formula, it is certainly not a new one: even the ancient tribal storytellers knew that this is the most successful method of entertaining an audience while slipping in a lesson or two. Brazilian storyteller Paulo Coehlo introduces Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd boy who one night dreams of a distant treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. And so he's off: leaving Spain to literally follow his dream. Along the way he meets many spiritual messengers, who come in unassuming forms such as a camel driver and a well-read Englishman. In one of the Englishman's books, Santiago first learns about the alchemists--men who believed that if a metal were heated for many years, it would free itself of all its individual properties, and what was left would be the "Soul of the World." Of course he does eventually meet an alchemist, and the ensuing student-teacher relationship clarifies much of the boy's misguided agenda, while also emboldening him to stay true to his dreams. "My heart is afraid that it will have to suffer," the boy confides to the alchemist one night as they look up at a moonless night. "Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself," the alchemist replies. "And that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams, because every second of the search is a second's encounter with God and with eternity." --Gail Hudson

3 weeks ago
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