TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introducing #DesiBooksReview Issue 3
Editor’s Note by JENNY BHATT

Literary Lineage: How the agonies, wounds, and humiliations of the devadasi community inspired the novel, Breaking Free
VAASANTHI (excerpt from Breaking Free)

On Translation: Why Breaking Free is indeed pathbreaking, and two main challenges of translating from an Indian language
N KALYAN RAMAN (excerpt from Breaking Free)

Krishna Sobti shows us the horrors of a country at the brink of change
SUHASINI PATNI on Krishna Sobti’s A Gujarat Here, A Gujarat There (translated by Daisy Rockwell)

Nariman Karkaria and the Gujarati travelogue tradition
VEENA NARAYAN on Nariman Karkaria’s The First World War Adventures of Nariman Karkaria (translated by Murali Ranganathan)

Microbes are the new frontiers in Tabish Khair’s post-pandemic speculative future
JEY SUSHIL on Tabish Khair’s The Body by the Shore

Taking Indian horror fiction further, Chandrima Das reveals what terrifies young, urban India
P S NISSIM on Chandrima Das’ Young Blood

Rama is a danger to foe and friend alike in the new Robert and Sally Goldman translation and the Vaishnavi Patel retelling
RASHI ROHATGI on Vaishnavi Patel’s Kaikeyi and The Ramayana of Valmiki (translated by Robert P Goldman and Sally J Sutherland Goldman)

Desi Books Review (format online) ISSN 2831-462X