English, August by Upamanyu Chatterjee

‘Agastya's story is convincing, entertaining, moving—and timeless. It merits an accolade that's far harder to earn than "authentic." It’s a classic'

— The New York Times

Agastya Sen is a young Indian civil servant whose imagination is dominated by women, literature and soft drugs.

As the novel opens he has been posted to the small provincial town of Madna.

First published in 1988, English, August, a funny, wryly observed account of Agastya Sen's year in the sticks, is a cult classic.

The Last Salute (Shesh Namaskar) by Santosh Kumar Ghosh

Shesh Namaskar is the story of a young man, basically innocent but now gone astray. In his ruthless search for a meaning of life, there is a sadness that both ennobles and elevates the mind. Shesh Namaskar is written in the form of a series of letters from a son to his mother who had left home, never to return, when the son had accused her of being unfaithful when he was younger. Through these letters he finds way of discovering his own self. As a last tribute of reverence, he seeks forgiveness from his mother just before his death. This outstanding novel published in 1971 won the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1972.

See here for a review of this translation.

Preview:

Turbulence by Samit Basu

'You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll gasp and you will demand a sequel'

BEN AARONOVITCH (Doctor Who)

'For wicked wit, for post-modern superheroics, for sheer verbal energy and dazzle, Samit Basu doesn't so much push the envelope as fold it into an n-dimensional hyper-envelope, address it to your hind-brain and mail it with a rail gun'

MIKE CAREY

(X-Men, Lucifer, the Felix Castor series)

How would you feel if you got what you really wanted? What would you do if you were given the power to change the world?

Everyone on BA flight 142 from London to Delhi got off it with a unique superpower. A power they didn't even know they wanted. Everyone, that is, who's still alive. Because someone is hunting down the passengers.

And now Aman Sen's ragtag collective of rogue superhumans is in grave danger. They must decide what to do with their powers and their lives — and quickly.

This explosive new blockbuster moves at hyperspeed across two continents as colliding forces move towards an action-packed finale that will leave the world — and you — changed forever.

Graham Hancock Omnibus I

1. The Sign and the Seal : The Quest for the Lost Ark of the Covenant

2. Fingerprints of the Gods : The Evidence of Earth's Lost Civilization

3. The Message of the Sphinx : A Quest for the Hidden Legacy of Mankind (with Robert Bauval)

4. Underworld : The Mysterious Origins of Civilization

5. Underworld Online (Online Updates)

Link: Box

East-West (Purbo-Paschim) Part II by Sunil Gangopadhyay

Outside a plush hotel in New York, an Indian youth is seen waiting for an appointment. He is desperately in need of a job. He is Atin, the young boy of Part One who gets mixed up in politics, and is obliged to leave the country, much against his will. He is still a revolutionary at heart, he hates his exile in America.

The large canvas of this novel covers three continents, but more particularly the dramatic events following the partition of India, the political unrest in West Bengal, the plight of the refugees and the birth of a new nation, Bangladesh. The social and political reality instead of remaining a backdrop takes on centre stage where simultaneously individual lives unfold, each with it's own account of love, hate, passion and betrayal. The author takes a dispassionate look at the Naxal revolutionaries, exposing their vulnerability, the colossal tragedy of so many promising lives coming to a pointless end. On the other side, in the other Bengal, events move to an inexorable climax, while the fictional characters flit across the stage, the shadow of actual historical figures loom large — Ayub Khan, Yahya Khan, General Niazi and the day by day account of how the mighty Pakistan Army, one of the best in the world was doomed to a most humiliating defeat.

This novel of epic proportions is an unique experiment in blending fiction with facts, an attempt to truthfully capture a swiftly moving course of events, a compelling novel difficult to put down. This novel had won the prestigious Ananda Puraskar in 1989.

For Bengali original, see here: 1 + 2.

Fantasy Omnibus II

1. Mythohistorical Thrillers by Ashwin Sanghi

i) The Rozabal Line
ii) Chanakya’s Chant
iii) The Krishna Key

2. The Awakening Trilogy by Josephine Angelini

i) Starcrossed
ii) Dreamless
iii) Goddess

3. Novels by Neil Gaiman

i) Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch (with Terry Pratchett)
ii) Neverwhere 
iii) Stardust 
iv) American Gods
v) Anansi Boys 
vi) The Ocean at the End of the Lane

4. Abandon Trilogy by Meg Cabot

i) Abandon
ii) Underworld
iii) Awaken

05 – Goddess Test Series by Aimée Carter

01 – The Goddess Test
01.5 – The Goddess Hunt
02 – Goddess Interrupted
02.5 – The Goddess Legacy
03 – The Goddess Inheritance

06 – Goddess of Yesterday by Caroline B Cooney

Link: Box

Weight Loss by Upamanyu Chatterjee

'Between the ages of eighteen and thirty-seven, when he died, Bhola had just eight sexual partners, four women and four males. When he reviewed his life...it pleased him that he had maintained a balance between genders in his choice of lovers. Of course, it was ridiculous that he should at the age of thirty-seven be lightheadedly embarrassed about how few were the people he had slept with. Then he reminded himself that that was nothing new, that he had always felt ridiculous, not to worry.'

Weight Loss, Upamanyu Chatterjee's fourth novel, is only tangentially about losing weight. And though the hero dies tragically young, it is, fundamentally, comic.

Bhola, innocent and unremarkable, but for his near crippling obsession with sex and running, fears taking on the burden of emotional commitment and goes through life falling in love with all kinds of inappropriate people. At school, he lusts indiscriminately after his teachers, of both sexes, and is attracted to eunuchs. While in college, far from home, he has vaguely demeaning affairs with his landlady and with a vegetable vendor-cum-nurse and her husband. Later, he marries (a woman who sings with a voice of liquid gold), fathers a daughter (‘a warm, living thing') and suspects he is close to balance and beauty. Then his past catches up with him.

Upamanyu Chatterjee's genius for black humour and the absurd has never been more compelling than in this unforgettable portrait of a lost life.