Book Tasting

The Last Illusion

By: Porochista Khakpour

Pages: 324  Publisher: Bloomsbury

Price: Rs 450

In an Iranian village, Zal’s demented mother, horrified by the pallor of his skin and hair, becomes convinced she has given birth to a ‘White Demon’. She hides him in a birdcage for a decade. Freed from his cage and adopted by a behavioural analyst, Zal awakens in New York to the possibility of a future.

The Aryavarta Chronicles: Kurukshetra

By: Krishna Udayasankar

Pages: 436  Publisher: Hachette

Price: Rs 350

Aryavarta Empire stands on the brink of destruction. Krishna Dwaipayana Vyasa can do no more than watch as their kin destroy one another on the fields of Kurukshetra. Driven to madness by betrayal, Govinda Shauri has become the greatest enemy that Aryavarta must face.

The Green of Bengal and Other Stories 

By: Gautam Benegal

Publisher: HarperCollins

Pages: 178

Price: Rs 299

A guest with gastric trouble, the besieged political campaigner, the cruel critic, the secret murderer, the grandfather who pines for the home he lost. Gautam Benegal’s short stories are peopled with characters we almost recognise  bringing alive the Calcutta of the late 1980s and the early ’90s.

Nature Chronicles of India: Essays

on Wildlife 

Edited by: Ananda Banerjee

Pages: 158  Publisher: Rupa

Price: Rs 195

This compilation of essays on the natural wealth of India is divided into two sections. In the first are field narratives by some of the finest biologists and naturalists. The second features stories by officers of the Raj posted across British India.

Standard Deviations

By: Gary Smith

Pages: 326  Publisher: Duckworth Overlook

Price: Rs 399

In Standard Deviations, economics professor Gary Smith walks us through the various tricks and traps that people use to back up their own crackpot theories. The book demystifies the science behind every day’s new discoveries and brings into stark relief the fraud that surrounds us all.