Carlson uncannily captures the complexity of his characters' inner lives.

    In this novel, the key role Sundaram gradually learns the art of living while experiencing the life's social intrigues and contradictions.

    Sixty-eight-year-old Noni Appa finds herself drawn to a married man – ‘Why do people have to define relationships, underline each word till the paper gives way beneath,’ she wonders. Bablu Kewat becomes obsessed with sanitary napkins much to his family’s horror, and a young woman keeps checking the weather forecast as she meticulously plans each of her five weddings. Funny, observant and wise, this is storytelling at its most irresistible.

    Draupadi chose to be the wife of five.But Meera chose to be the devotee of just One.Life is ruled by our choices. And these choices hold the ultimate reins to everything our life depends on. These choices twist everybody’s life in this story.Udi is a force to reckon with. She is a strong and independent young woman who rules her emotions. Then Garv happens… the sweet, innocent and romantic man rocks her by the roots, and she is found treading down the paths that she had never vouched for herself.Her best friends, Rupali and Siddharth, are the only people she ever leans on. Rupali and Siddharth’s love story was a mistake from the start. Siddharth loves her with all his heart, but she has other desire, which leads her to her downfall, dragging Siddharth along.In this gamble of self-made choices, will Udi be found struggling to control her life?Will Garv stood up and make a choice?Will their choices by worth it?Read Oscar For Loving, Grammy For Not! Delve into the lives of Udi, Garv, Siddharth and Rupali, and find an inspiration to be strong, to find love, to maintain friendship, and to find the strength to live your life again… no matter what happens!

    The Christian Science-Monitor praised his "engaging blend of deadpan humor and genuine empathy"; "Thankfully," said The Philadelphia Inquirer, "Kirn never abandons his theme of uncertainty when observing modern angst." Now Walter Kirn has fashioned She Needed Me, a moving, surprising, and darkly comic novel whose sympathetic portrait of a disillusioned generation is mercifully uncynical. Weaver Walquist and Kim Lindgren first meet outside a St. Paul, Minnesota, abortion clinic. Kim - twenty-three, pregnant, with no money to finish junior college - is about to walk inside. Weaver is lying in front of the door. At twenty-six, he is a Bible-carrying member of the Conscience Squad, a fanatical right-wing protest group...yet readers of all minds will be drawn to this gentle, questing soul as he struggles with his feelings for Kim and his subsequent sexual desire for her; his crumbling devotion to the church; and his waning loyalty to his employer, Sanipure, a Christian soap and cosmetics company that calls sales "fellowship moments." But Weaver was not always devout. The only child of a widowed, highly successful Wisconsin liquor store owner, he tried to ward off teenage isolation with a mixture of pot and pills, vodka, sex and heavy metal music, until born-again Christian Lucas Boone found him half dead on the floor of a Greyhound station men's room. As Weaver tries to persuade Kim to have her baby, they embark upon a journey that brings them into contact with a cast of keenly drawn characters: Chuck and Dixie Lindgren, Kim's parents, who made more money in one hot Las Vegas weekend than they ever earned from their North Dakota farm; charismatic, paranoid Lucas Boone, popping anti-depressant pills like candy; Kim's disaffected brother, Ricky, who makes a modest living burglarizing his relatives' homes; and fin

    "The City Is a Rising Tide" unfolds against a stunning backdrop of history, culture, and landscape -- from the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze to the refined vistas of Central Park, from the Cultural Revolution to the surreal world of moviemaking. In New York City, Justine Laxness works as a money manager at a nonprofit, the Aquinas Foundation. Justine's love for her boss, Peter, is unrequited, despite their deep friendship and extensive history: they first met in the early 1970s, when Justine was a child living in Beijing with her Christian family. Peter, then twenty-eight and stationed in China while working for Richard Nixon, had fallen in love with Justine's nanny, Su Chen -- a Communist revolutionary under Mao -- and still feels guilt for his part in her disappearance and death.Justine's obsession with Peter spurs her to embezzle funds from Aquinas and lend the money to James Nutter, a screenwriter and old college flame who has resurfaced in Justine's life after ten years. But every action she takes will have unforeseen ramifications, creating a tidal wave of betrayal and destruction. Lyrical and suspenseful by turns, "The City Is a Rising Tide" is an enchanting work of luminous prose and uncommon imagination.

    Raped at age ten, raped again as a young collegiate, she is abandoned twice: first by her father and later by Christy who loved her, but takes her through a wedding ceremony only to leave her later the same day. When Christy returns sixteen years later, shattered and unstable, the burnt and withered roots of love bloom again. Trauma, betrayal, and loneliness are the colours that paint this picture of physical and emotional violence that Radhika endures.

    These stories span characters and emotional states with canny details that touch the depths of your soul. Picturing the complexities of love, misery and mystery, the stories try to gnaw your heart like never before.• What does a flower teach us we often fail to see?• “The belly is an ungrateful wretch.” Is it true?• Ever wondered about the sparseness and illusions in life?• Does death put an end to true love?• Have all the ascetics won over their emotions?With the power of simple language, this book transports the readers to a world scarcely thought of in our bustling lives. The allegories maintain an intense rhythm of life prompting the readers to perceive things from a unique angle.“A whole bookful to make you think, cry, think again and move on.”

    He has enshrined in them every kind of experience from the pangs of hunger and sex to the rapture of mystic vision. Its range includes stark realistic pictures of the material world as well as the realm of fantasy haunted by ghosts and spirits. Basheer has written on love and hate, on politicians and pickpockets, on the fancies of childhood and on the disillusionments of adult life with an intense sense of the tragedy of life and at the same time an irrepressible sense of humour.

    Time to stop doing silly things and start living happily ever after, right? Well, then maybe someone should tell Kasturi that.This irrepressibly irreverent and not-quite-beaming bride-to-be fumbles through a messy engagement and in a moment of indecision, steps across a line that she should never have been near. To make things worse, her best friends are now nauseatingly mushy star-crossed lovers, her future mother-in-law thinks the kitchen-phobic Kasturi is a fabulous cook, her colleague Padma hates her for no reason, her boss wants medical intervention for her imaginary deafness and her mother has become a cyber-celebrity. This was not the way things were meant to go.Smart, hilarious and utterly unpredictable, I do! do I? will have you at the edge of your seat-unless youve already fallen off it laughing.

    

    . . To Soorya Giri, arranged marriages have always seemed absurd. But while her career as an environmental lawyer has flourished, Soorya is still a virgin, living with her parents in suburban New Jersey. She wants to be married. And she is finally ready to do the unthinkable. . . Soorya's first bridal viewings are as awkward as she anticipated. But then she's introduced to Roger Vadepalli. Self-possessed, intelligent, and charming, Roger is clearly interested in marriage and seems eager to clinch the deal. Attracted to him in spite of her mistrust, Soorya is also drawn into a flirtation with Lou, a widowed colleague who is far from her family's idea of an acceptable husband. In choosing between two very different men, Soorya must reconcile her burgeoning independence and her conservative background. And she must decide what matters most to her-not just in a husband, but in a family, a culture, and a life. . . "One of the best [novels] I've read this year. I couldn't put it down. . .this book is a gem!" --Mary Monroe, "New York Times" bestselling author on "The Unexpected Son" "Compelling and memorable." -Mary Jo Putney, "New York Times" bestselling author on "The Forbidden Daughter" "Vivid, rich. . .expertly portrays a young woman caught between love and duty, hope and despair." -Anjali Banerjee on "The Dowry Bride" "Dazzles you with a taste of Desi culture in America." -Caridad Pineiro

    All his fiction is available in Penguin editions and the two stories in this collection illustrate Self's gift for finding the extraordinary, the surreal and the downright absurd amidst the mundanities of modern life.- Design Faults in the Volvo 760 Turbo- A Story for Europe

    In The Road Show we meet Zachary Edge, a Confederate soldier, on his way home at the war's close. He stumbles upon a traveling troupe, a chance encounter that is the start of an unforgettable odyssey. Edge hits the road with bawdy showgirls, roguish tricksters, and a host of colorful characters. He soon finds himself in the arms of Autumn Auburn, the lithesome artiste known for her breathtaking sensuality.