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Karthika Naïr's Until the Lions, a re-imagining of the Mahabharata in the voices of its marginal characters, will have its Hyderabad release tomorrow. Details below.
It is a fantastic book and if you're in Hyderabad, and free in the afternoon, do try and make it.
Monday, 28 September, 4.30 pm.
School of Humanities Auditorium, University of Hyderabad.
This reading is a part of The Park's New Festival's events in Hyderabad, in association with the Prakriti Foundation.
I will be in conversation with Karthika.
Possibly the most fun thing I've read recently is Zen Cho's Sorcerer to the Crown. It has one of the best character names of this decade (Georgiana Without Ruth) and the most magnificent last chapter this side of Georgette Heyer.
In fact, if you've ever wished for one last, undiscovered Heyer, this is the book you need to read. There's adventure, magic (which, all right, Heyer didn't have; but then there's magic and there's sorcery) and some truly laugh out loud moments that are pure comedy and timing.
All in all, it was a joy to read.
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Having done with the Cho, I flitted and sipped and left many things unread. I enjoyed Jo Walton's The Just City. I am wondering if I should jump on the Elena Ferrante bandwagon.
There's a book in every space I occupy. Michael Pollan in one place, Anne Carson in another, Nabaneeta Dev Sen in a third. And yet, I think the book I will begin today and carry everywhere with me, is George Eliot's Romola. [see pic]
I found this copy in Jan this year, at the Hyd Lit Fest's second hand book stall, along with a right loot of good stuff, all of which I failed to catalogue. And, I guess, I'm in the mood for some proper historical fiction.
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Oh - the other thing I'm carrying around with me everywhere is Karthika Nair's soon-to-be-released Until the Lions, her re-telling of the Mahabharata from several perpectives not limited to women.
It is magnificent and I am looking forward to being in conversation with her on the 28th at the UoH. Details of all Park Festival events here. Do come if you're in town.
Thought I'd wait until August blew over.
Here's my response to August's villanelle submissions.
And this month, I rewrote my entire column at the last minute, changing the prompt entirely. Yup. I thought short and sweet was the answer to the tribulations of the last two interminable months.
Here's September's prompt.
Get working!
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A thing I've noticed (since they've begun tracking this stuff at The Daily O) is that more people share the prompts on Facebook than they do on Twitter. I wonder why. I mean, of course I wonder, because I'm not on FB and twitter is where I tend to hang out. And all kinds of stuff gets shared on twitter, so I wonder why the prompts don't.
Not important.
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I've been reading a bunch of stuff and staying offline and it feels good. Yesterday I called precisely two friends after ages and it struck me as odd later that I apologised to my virtual world for not being around, but it took real effort to do the same thing when I tried it on my present-right-here friends.
