Two Books and The Undiscovered Country.

In Shakespeare's tragedy, Hamlet, the eponymous hero calls Death as ''the undiscovered country." Certainly, Death remains the greatest mystery ever. What really happens when one ceases to breathe? Is it the end of everything or is there something beyond? Is there something that is called the Soul which is immortal?These are questions that philosophers over …

Review: Lesser Breeds by Nayantara Sahgal

It happened during a conference. The professor was singing a paean in praise of a novel called Mistaken Identity and I was slowly getting enraged. I had read the novel a couple of years back and had found it no great shakes. In fact, to me, the writer had committed a cardinal sin. Though the …

S is for Successor by Ismail Kadare

He turned the switch further, until the light was at maximum strength, then laughed again, ha-ha-ha, as if he'd just found a toy that pleased him. Everyone laughed with him, and the game went on until he began to turn the dimmer down. As the brightness dwindled, little by little everything began to freeze, to …

Q is for Question of Blood by Ian Rankin

There is a shooting incident at a Scottish school. Two seventeen years are killed and one injured by an ex-army man who later trains the gun on himself. Three bodies and one wounded student. Inspector Rebus feels at first that there is no mystery but since one of the students killed happens to be the …

Edgar Allan Poe’s Reynolds: And Therein Hangs a Tale

The truth is there are days when the world changes and a man does not notice because his mind is on his own affairs.There are some writers whose life is as (if not more) interesting as the texts they wrote. Edgar Allan Poe is one such. On the 26th of September 1849, Poe was in …

Review: The Daughter-in-Law by Diana Diamond

Jonathan Donner, heir to a multi-million fortune, meets a young woman by the name of Nicole Pierce while sky-diving. He saves her from certain death, she is indebted to him. It is the beginning of a whirlwind romance that culminates in a runaway marriage. While, Jonathan's father, Jack, and his sister, Pam, accept Nicole as …