Shom Biswas
What Madness is to Die for?
Among Jack London’s short stories, the lesser-read classic is The Madness of John Harned, a strange, violent & shocking tale of cultural differences looking deep into the nature of sportsmanship and b
09 Jan 2018
Man versus the bull, in London’s words
Jack London was one of the pioneers of the American short story.
06 Jan 2018
Bryson knows to make science easy
A Short History of Nearly Everything is that pulp science book which is written by and written for non-science educated folks, which STEM-educated folks would equally enjoy.
29 Dec 2017
The innings that wasn’t
Wijedasa Gamini Karunasena, takes immense pride in the initials of his name, which were also those of the first great cricketer, the legendary WG Grace.
15 Dec 2017
From secret service to a flashy spy, Smiley’s stories have them all
James Bond is what you think the Cold War spies were like. George Smiley is what they actually were like.
06 Dec 2017
Lil’ old boy with a talking dog
Tintin is 88 years old, can you imagine? He first appeared in serialized form in Tintin in the Land of the Soviets, on the 10th of 1929, in the section for young readers of the French newspaper Le Vin
01 Dec 2017
Tintin’s 88-years-old but new as ever
The cartoon reporter first appeared on comic albums serialised by a Belgian cartoonist on January 1929
29 Nov 2017
Eerie ambience louder than words
Algernon Blackwood’s The Willows is a perfect example of how author is absolute master at creating a surreptitious kind of supernatural without blood and gore
22 Nov 2017
Spine-chilling story that won’t get old
A long short story of chilling horror by English author Algernon Blackwood focuses on human courage which many times is extraordinary
21 Nov 2017
The chill down your spine
Algernon Blackwood’s The Willows was rated as the best tale of the supernatural, by the renowned American horror writer HP Lovecraft.
17 Nov 2017
Unveil mystery through Feluda
Satyajit Ray, legendary film director and one of the greatest creative minds of the last half of the 20th century, is introduced to the Bengali from an earlier age than most others.
10 Nov 2017
A robot that grasped the nuances of justice
My first sci-fi hero was Professor Shonku, the brilliant, reclusive scientist of Satyajit Ray’s short stories.
03 Nov 2017
Meet the wise, funny and loyal Mma Ramotswe
You have to have a heart of stone to not be absolutely smitten by Mma Ramotswe of Alexander McCall Smith’s The No 1 Ladies Detective Agency.
27 Oct 2017
Ruaha to finish the work left unfinished
Almost all reputed novelists and litterateurs of the Bengali language had tried their hand at literature for the young, with varying degrees of success.
20 Oct 2017
The disciplined yet gentle Bade Bhai
Especially for non-readers of Hindi, Premchand can be a rather intimidating figure.
13 Oct 2017
Dear writer, it’s not too late
Mary Ann Shaffer wrote her first book when she was 73 years old which was sold posthumously
26 Sep 2017
Letters to Juliet on an island’s survival story
Mary Ann Shaffer’s is perhaps the most inspiring story of all writers. Especially for procrastinating writers, people who came into writing very late, and writers who the real-world problem of procuri
22 Sep 2017
When Marlowe became everything a hero is...
You know that the world around you is not perfect.
15 Sep 2017
Lies are okay, but not friends
Philip Marlowe is a fictional character created by Raymond Chandler and first appears in
The Big Sleep, published in 1939. He is nothing extraordinary but hints at the good in every man
13 Sep 2017
