BOOKS OF THE WEEK

The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje

ABOUT THE BOOK

The final curtain is closing on the Second World War and in an abandoned Italian village. Hana, a nurse, tends to her sole remaining patient. Rescued from a burning plane, the anonymous Englishman is damaged beyond recognition and haunted by painful memories. The only clue Hana has to unlocking his past is the one thing he clung on to through the fire a copy of The Histories by Herodotus, covered with hand­written notes detailing a tragic love affair.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Michael Ondaatje is the author of several novels, as well as a memoir, a non-fiction book on film, and several books of poetry. Among his many Canadian and international recognitions, his novel The English Patient won the Booker Prize and the 2018 Golden Man Booker Prize, and was adapted into a multi-award-winning Oscar movie; and Anil’s Ghost won the Giller Prize, the Irish Times International Fiction Prize, and the Prix Médicis. Born in Sri Lanka, Michael Ondaatje lives in Toronto.

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BOOKS OF THE WEEK

Called by the Hills : A Home in the Himalaya by Anuradha Roy

ABOUT THE BOOK

http://A book about building a home and a wild garden on the edge of a Himalayan forest, illuminated by the author's own water colours.

When novelist Anuradha Roy and her husband stumble upon a derelict cottage in the hill station of Ranikhet, they decide it is where they will now live. Leaving behind the freneticism of Delhi, Roy is initially bemused by the gentle pace of life in the mountains. Before long, however, she is won over: spellbound by the landscape, taken to the heart of her sometimes recalcitrant neighbours and adopted by several mountain dogs.

Over twenty-five years, as Roy becomes accustomed to living among forests where leopards roam freely, she will come to encounter nature at its most fierce, beautiful and vulnerable – and bear witness to the destructive impact of global warming on the alpine ecosystem.

Called by the Hills: A Home in the Himalaya is an intimate portrait of a home, a community and a rugged, extraordinary landscape. Written with unsentimental clarity, humour and poignancy, this is an account of profound transformations.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

ANURADHA ROY has written five novels, including Sleeping on Jupiter, which won the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature 2016 and was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize. She won the Sahitya Akademi Award 2022 for All the Lives We Never Lived, a book that was also shortlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award. This is her first work of non-fiction.

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BOOKS OF THE WEEK

General Brasstacks: The Sundarji Story 

by Probal DasGupta 

ABOUT THE BOOK

In 1986, as Indian and Chinese troops faced off in Sumdorong Chu in Arunachal Pradesh, an Indian general airlifted a brigade to occupy dominating heights, putting pressure on the Chinese below. The audacious General Krishnaswamy Sundarji swung the momentum decisively in India’s favour, forcing the Chinese to back-pedal in the Himalayas.

The following year, the same army chief planned Operation Brasstacks, one of the largest military exercises since World War II. The move threatened Pakistan’s nuclear ambitions, unnerving General

Zia-ul-Haq and prompting him to seek rapprochement.

The 1980s were a decade of dramatic turns: events that led to the assassinations of two Indian prime ministers, political upheaval and military crises. General Sundarji oversaw two of the most controversial operations in independent India: Operation Blue Star, against Sikh militants inside the Golden Temple, and Operation Pawan, against Tamil militants in Sri Lanka. He was also drawn into the Bofors acquisition and the scandal that followed, which helped bring down a government.

ut who was Krishnaswamy Sundarji? How did his penchant for bold, sometimes brash decisions take shape? Was he too ambitious? Was he ahead of his time in pushing for technology-driven warfare, or behind it as insurgencies demanded a more improvised approach?

This definitive biography by bestselling author Probal Dasgupta traces the life and times of one of India’s most charismatic yet forgotten army chiefs. Sundarji’s career mirrored the journey of a young nation, often echoing its political choices and contradictions. The only general to have influenced both military and political thinking in India’s democracy, his brisk 820-day tenure saw the army through modernization, crises, controversies and change. This book explores Sundarji’s central role in shaping the modern Indian Army and his influence during the turbulent 1980s.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Probal DasGupta is an author, historian and columnist. He is the author of the bestselling book - Watershed 1967: India’s Forgotten Victory Over China’ and ‘Camouflaged: Forgotten Stories from Battlefields.

An alumnus of Columbia University in New York (USA), Probal is a Braun-Myers Fellow, JN Tata Scholar and RD Sethna Scholar. He served with Gorkha Rifles in the Indian Army before transitioning into a business leader. Probal headed up global consulting firms in South Asia and is the founder of Birdstone - advisors to firms on investment risks, governance and reputation.

A corporate speaker on geopolitics and history, he writes a column in the media and is the founder of a literature festival. Probal lives in Mumbai with his wife Nisha and has two children – Siddharth and Arayna.

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