pen.books.and.scalpel

BOOK NAME:  HAMNET AUTHOR NAME:  MAGGIE O’FARRELL GENRE:  HISTORICAL FICTION PUBLISHER:  TINDER PRESS There are days when I finish a book, feel good about making the right choice, and stack it neatly on my shelf before carrying on with my life. And then, there are days when after reading the last line of a book, I close it with care and hold it to my chest for a couple of minutes with my eyes closed and refuse to move on as if life has come to a standstill. This is one of those days when I prefer to dwell inside my book instead of being surrounded by chaos.  Hamnet is partly biographical and partly fictional, based on Hamnet Shakespeare and how his passing affected his parents and gave birth to the world-famous tragedy ‘Hamlet’. This book has been sending waves across bookstagram ever since its release. While some call it a masterpiece, others call this an attempt to whitewash Shakespeare’s image. But contrary to all the claims, I found the book very balanced an...

BOOK NAME:  NIGHT CRAWLING AUTHOR NAME:  LEILA MOTTLEY GENRE:  CONTEMPORARY  PUBLISHER:  BLOOMSBURY   My, oh my! What a find. I went in search of a recently famous classic in a second-hand book shop. But when I couldn’t find the one I was looking for and I was about to leave the place disheartened, I found this one lying in a corner, pleading to be picked. Having seen it a couple of times on bookstagram, I picked it up instead of returning dejected and empty-handed. I usually don’t start the books I buy right away but something about this book made me want to read it immediately. And when I flipped that first page over, I knew there was no putting it back without finishing it. And that’s what I did too. I gulped it down like it was a potion made to heal while all it did was break my heart piece by piece.    Kiara is a seventeen-year-old living with her brother and an abandoned child, Trevor in Oakland. Poverty pushes her to the brink where she cho...

BOOK NAME:  NORMAL PEOPLE AUTHOR NAME:  SALLY ROONEY GENRE:  LITERARY FICTION PUBLISHER:  FABER & FABER   This must be a mistake. The title, I mean. Normal People? These two? Marianne and Connell! Seriously? If anything, they are very far from being normal.  The story is about two individuals who are drawn to each other but will never confess their feelings because they think they aren’t good enough for each other. They keep exploring life with other people only to get back together again. But can it go on forever like that? We will only find out at the end. Or… not?! The book is neither plot-driven nor character-driven. It’s more like Asian school drama meets American literary fiction, but better. It’s more about exploration of emotions, mental health, and vulnerabilities rather than just a steamy romance. Honestly, I went into the book blindly because of all the noise around it, and also because I genuinely wanted to try Sally Rooney’s work even thoug...

BOOK NAME:  I WHO HAVE NEVER KNOWN MEM AUTHOR NAME:  JACQUELINE HARPMAN GENRE:  DYSTOPIAN PUBLISHER:  VINTAGE   I should have known. I should have just known. I should have taken all the warnings seriously and prepared myself for the destruction that was about to come.  What happens when forty women are retained inside a chamber and none of them knows how or why they were brought there? What happens when they try to sneak out and go in search of a world that is habitable? What happens when they have to navigate a path where they are surrounded by deafening silence throughout? What will a woman do when she realises she is the only breathing, moving human left in the vastness that never seems to end? And that she has never known men before? And anything else, for that matter.  This 187-page book is a concise novel that speaks of everything there is in this world—the earth, the moon, the colours, flowers, mirrors, beauty, rooms, lives, food, companionship...

BOOK NAME:  PROPHET SONG AUTHOR NAME:  PAUL LYNCH GENRE:  DYSTOPIAN PUBLISHER:  ONEWORLD   Set in dystopian Dublin, Ireland, this book imagines the future of the country under a totalitarian regime where a mother of four is left to fight her tooth and nail to save her family, after her trade unionist husband gets arrested for starting a peaceful protest, after her son joins the rebels to fight the regime, after her second son is destroyed by war and is left in the hospital for surgery, with yet another son who is always strapped to her chest, a daughter who is too innocent for this vicious world and a father who is suffering from Alzheimer’s. She needs to choose who she needs to save the most - a choice a mother should never have to make in a free country. Feels claustrophobic and suffocating, right? That’s exactly how this book is written and paced.  There were moments when I wanted to stop reading and give myself a break, and that’s when I realised how pr...