Every time the year comes to a conclusion and a new year approaches, we are filled with mixed emotions. Emotions of memories, good or bad, passing events, accomplishments, and lessons learned, what else other than our personal development makes us overwhelmed are books.
Here are some of the books that remained in the highlight this year due to their popularity and unique plot:
Hymns In Blood by Nanak Singh
Chakri - 1987, a peaceful settlement on the banks of the Soan River near Rawalpindi. It is surrounded by joyous singing and golden wheat stalks. Sikhs, Muslims, and Hindus eagerly await the end of winter and meet to prepare for the Lohri festival. In the midst of this joyful commotion, the village's learned elder, Baba Rhana, is concerned about the future of his foster daughter, Naseem. Their blissful existence comes to an end when they learn that India may be partitioned. Baba Rhana's family must leave their village due to the escalating wrath of communal violence. They quickly understand that their lives will never be the same.
The Living Mountain By Amitav Ghosh
With folktale-like aspects, this novel is simple and elegantly written. The Living Mountain is an allegorical story that can be read as both a naive and cautionary tale. Climate change, exploitation of man and nature, colonialism, the impacts of commercialism, greed, and other important themes are on display.
City of Incident By Annie Zaidi
In the Annie Zaidi's City of Incident, she explores the lives of six men and six women. Each of these characters is fighting to keep up with city life, which offers little hope, power, or possibility for atonement. The stories of these people intertwine and provide readers with an unpleasant image of the lives that continue to exist on the outskirts of our perception. These are folks you may have seen from your car, on the subway, or on the pages of your daily newspaper. People who don't capture your attention until something unexpected happens.
In The Language Of Remembering By Aanchal Malhotra
Aanchal Malhotra portrays how the divide is not a concept of history because subsequent generations are entangled with the legacy. It displays conversations taped over several years with Pakistanis, Indians, and Bangladeshis of a certain generation. The book focuses on how memory is retained and how the implications appear across the nation and community.
To Hell And Back By Barkha Dutt
When the coronavirus epidemic was initially declared in 2020, famous journalist Barkha Dutt embarked on a series of road journeys. On her tour, she documented the experiences of people caught up in a pandemic. She discusses the pandemic in India via the stories of workers, politicians, businessmen, doctors, nurses, teachers, students, families, and others in her book.
Sin By Wajida Tabassum
The story is set in 1950s Hyderabad's elite society. Tabassum is noted for her depiction of the realities of the society in which she lived colliding with scathing assessments from self-proclaimed custodians of the period's culture. This book contains some of the most daring short stories, including unfulfilled marriages, lascivious nawabs, sly retainers, lecherous begums, and more, as well as the author's life narrative.
In An Ideal World By Kunal Basu
Altaf Hussein was taken from his council hotel. The individuals in charge have walked away from the problem. There are other rumours. Some claim he has travelled to Iraq to fight the jihad. Some claim he was tortured for opposing Nationalist scholars. These nationalists are on a mission to establish a Hindu motherland in India. The fire of Liberals and Chauvinists in Kolkata exploits the Sengupta ménage. Joy works as a bank director, while Rohini teaches. They are astounded to find that their son, Bobby, has visited a Nationalist intellectual leader. He is currently working on Altaf's exposure. The plot will take a dramatic turn from here. Will the parents be able to clear their son of the heinous crime?
2 A.M. In Little America, By Ken Kalfus
Ken Kalfus has spent his decades-long career mostly outside the mainstream — a writer's writer with a David Foster Wallace blurb to prove it — but 2 A.M. in Little America deserves to be among the year's biggest hits. The futuristic novel follows Ron Patterson, a lowly security worker, in the future after the fall of America.
The novel is set in one of fiction's most beloved time periods: the not-too-distant future. Ron Patterson, an American migrant, resides in an unnamed country with other men in a run-down "cinder block midrise" and does "semi-menial" labour servicing security equipment in office buildings, The Washington Post reported.
Siren Queen, By Nghi Vo
Siren Queen is an intriguing look at an outsider attaining celebrity on her own terms in a magical Hollywood where monsters are real and the beauty of the silver screen fills every page. Nghi Vo is the critically praised author of the novella The Empress of Salt and Fortune and When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain. She was born in Illinois and now resides on the shores of Lake Michigan.
The Furrows, by Namwali Serpell
Every era's affliction and indulgence is to conceive of itself as exceptional: as especially burdened and meaningful. However, the case for the present is compelling. "It's as though something enormous or disastrous is always on the verge of happening..." writes Namwali Serpell, a Zambian-American novelist. "We are all now cataclysm heroes." The Furrows demonstrates how profitable white guilt and trauma can be. And how quickly it might devolve into something darker.