Book Review: Valley of Masks

Tarun J Tejpal, best known as the founder-editor of Tehelka weaves an intricate parallel world that separates ‘our’ current world with his fantasy one at a higher plane — physically and in other senses as well.

The Story

I almost gave up the book during the first chapter. That our protagonist took about 6 pages to brew a cuppa tea, to me, seemed ominous. I dreaded the pace at which the book would progress. Mind you, I’m not averse to the tomes or the slow moving books, but this, for some reason, set alarm bells ringing.

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Book review: True Dummy

True Dummy

Indian authors excite me. After years of searching for good Indian authors whose writing one could relate to, it has been a great ride for the last few years to find young authors with new stories to tell. So everytime I pick up a book, I try to find the early work of an author. It’s usually not jaded or typecast by himself/herself.

So when the opportunity arose to read Ashish Jaiswal’s debut novel “True Dummy“, I wasn’t going to pass. With no idea of the story line and little expectation (as I always maintain from debutante authors), I took the book along on a a trip. With about three hours to kill at the airport in the evening, I figured this was as good a time as any to start. Continue reading »