Set against the backdrop of the Mahabharata, Desai attempts to make readers aware that although winning is usually the goal in every war, one should also be ready to face defeat.Through Radheya, readers will learn about Karna and the circumstances which earned him a memorable place in the Mahabharata. From early on, Karna was deprived of familial love. Throughout the course of his life, he suffered at the hands of others. He also felt discarded by his own mother Kunti and was also ridiculed by many because he was born in a lower class. Since Karna’s foundation years were so tumultuous, his immense strength was reduced and he often felt lonely.Nevertheless, through Radheya readers can visualize the development of Karna’s individuality and how he came to earn the title of fearless warrior. This novel is essentially a written tribute to the hero Karna who fought against his own family members while remaining loyal to his friend. Through Karna’s decisions and actions, Desai brings to life the impending dualities of life such as victory and defeat, and doing what is expected versus doing what is right. Through Karna, Desai has tried to universalize the “karma katha”.

    Yayati was a great scholar and one of the noblest rulers of olden times. He followed the shastras and was devoted to the welfare of his subjects. Even the King of Gods, Indra, held him in high esteem. Married to seductively beautiful Devyani, in love with her maid Sharmishtha, and father of five sons from two women, yet Yayati unabashedly declares, My lust for pleasure is unsatisfied. His quest for the carnal continued, sparing not even his youngest son, and exchanging his old age for his son s youth.

    wrote on the royal family of the erstwhile state of Travancore. The other two are Dharmaraja (1913) and Ramaraja Bahadur in two parts (1918-1920). Marthanda Varma on the surface, is a historical romance, but its subtext is a political one of contemporary significance. In the novel there is a subplot with Subhadra at the centre. Through what she does or what happens to her, C.V. is projecting a futuristic vision of the New Woman in the Indian context. The conventional image of the woman is replaced by an imagined figure that was to emerge on the Indian scene. Another unique feature of this novel is the introduction, for the first time, of untouchables, the channans of south Travancore, Hence is fiction asserting humanistic values over and above the taboos and superstitions of yester-years.

    Just when things get going, as always, life’s plans go against theirs. This story, in its simplicity, shows us the importance of family, trust, dedication and friendship.'Loving someone is not tough; real courage is to be with that person forever.’Bestselling author Anuj Tiwari is a self-confessed mamma’s boy, who draws inspirations for his novel from the love story of his parents, who encourage him to love, live and write... – The Asian Age Myriad shades of romance. – Deccan ChronicleAn unforgettable love story. – Afternoon

    Shivaji Sawant's Mrityunjaya is an outstanding instance of such a literary masterpiece in which a contemporary Marathi novelist investigates the meaning of the bewildering skein that is life through the personae of the Mahabharata protagonists. For over two decades since its first publication the vast non- Marathi and non-Hindi readership remained deprived of this remarkable exploration of the human psyche till the publication of this English translation by the Writers workshop – a contribution for which there is much to be grateful for. Mrityunjaya is the autobiography of Karna, and yet it is not just that. With deceptive case, Sawant brings into play an exceptional stylistic innovation by combining six "dramatic soliloquies" to form the nine books of this novel of epic dimensions. Four books are spoken by Karna. These are interspersed with a book each from the lips of his unwed mother Kunti, Duryodhana (who considers Karna his mainstay), Shon (Shatruntapa, his foster-brother, who here-worships him), his wife Vrishali to whom he is like a god and, last of all, Krishna. Sawant depicts an uncanny similarity between Krishna and Karna and hints at a mystic link between them, investing his protagonist with a more-than-human aura to offset the un-heroic and even unmanly acts which mar this tremendously complex and utterly fascinating creating of Vyasa.

    He offered himself but did not bow down in front of the Mughal Emperor; he died a hero`s death at a very young age, when he was just 32 years old. For the past 325 years, Sambhaji was often painted in black. He had a poetic mind, he was a very intelligent person, he was concerned about his people, he was brave, he was a great thinker, but all his good qualities were over-looked; his personality was always looked upon with suspicion. Vishwas Patil, the most gifted author today, tells us more about Sambhaji Raje, as he has seen him through the references in history, as he has found him in the very valuable yet ignored documents, as he has heard him in the hilly regions of Sahyadri mountain ranges, among the creeks of the Arabian sea. Sambhaji, son of Shivaji Maharaj, a novel personality with his equally impressive, breath-taking, spectacular, stormy yet very true story.

    She raised her children with the income from just a few acres of land that she managed on her own, tending to the cattle and crops with maternal concern, all the while minding her unruly husband. Every obligation met, all accounts squared up, each meal cooked to satiate the tongue and heart—Amma never rested, not even when bedridden with Parkinson’s. She lived a farmer’s life and died a farmer’s death.Amma is a homage to a way of life and values—simplicity, honesty and hard work—lost to us today. Peppered with unsentimental nostalgia and delightful humour, and vividly documenting village and farming life in the Kongu region, Amma tugs at generational memory. Murugan’s non-fiction writing, his first to appear in English, is as deeply affecting as his fiction.

    This is an account of a youth from interior Maharashtra. He fights his way through just to complete his secondary education. His landless father tilling lands for others, thinks his son's education not only unaffordable but unwise also, He helplessly watches his mothr permanently fated to thankless labour, contineously working for an evergrowing family deep in the cluthes of customs and superstitions. He had to wrestle with hardships and hunger to complete his school education. This autobiographical novel is an authentic tale as much of the author and his family as of any of the hundreds of landless families from rural interiors.

    It captures the dominance of a colonial power over the region that began with the entry of the Portuguese about four hundred years ago. The novel is a graphic description of the displacement of this strongly-rooted community which saw its resurrection in a new area. In the course of its narrative, the novel traces the gradual changes in the structure of the family that moved from a closely knit joint family of the bygone era to the nuclear family. It also deals with the factors that are responsible for the change in value systems of individuals in the wake of such paradigm shifts. With its vast canvas, it remarkably weaves fiction with myth and history, peppered with cultural details and linguistic nuances. The narration in Swapna Saraswatha progresses in the form of an epic detailing the story of nine generations spread over a period of two hundred and fifty years from 1510 to about 1760. It encompasses more than a hundred and fifty characters which include Hindus, Muslims, Christians, chieftains, traders, farmers, priests and black magicians, and covers a range of themes spread across folk tales, legends, armies, myths and a sprinkling of history.

    On one level the theme is a clash between the old and the new, between traditional medicine and the Western system of allopathy. The traditional system of Ayurveda, Iiterally the Veda concerning life, is based on the Hindu concept of rebirth and the dignity of death, with the belief that death is only a part of the continuous process of renewal which goes on in life. But no modern doctor would be willing to accept death as a means of the graceful exit. He would consider it morally wrong to let a patient meet his end without a fight.But it is not just a clash of values that the novel is concerned with. On a deeper level the theme is man's confrontation with death and his attempt to come to grips with it. The author looks at the human weakness with tenderness and sympathy. Also, there is an effort to overcome the fear of death, and all this makes this novel a great work of art. In a novelist of the range and depth of Tarashankar Bandyopadhyay, the local gradually merges into the universal. What stands out is the essential human experience which moves the reader anywhere.

    Following in the tradition of her first book, Monsoon Diary: a memoir with recipes, award-winning author, Shoba Narayan explores themes of family, culture and identity. In vivid and heartfelt prose, Shoba Narayan describes the trajectory of her immigrant life from the salty plains of South India to the high rises of New York and Boston. From the exhilarating thrill of being a new immigrant to becoming an angst-ridden mother grappling with hyphenated identities, Narayan describes the life of an immigrant with humour and insight. She talks about why she yearned for America and became a citizen of the land she would ultimately leave. Return to India is about love and loss; about family and identity; and about the quest for a place called home. Return to India is about the costs of chasing the American dream and the complications of returning to your homeland. Rich in detail and empathetic in tone, this book will resonate with immigrants and diaspora from all cultures.

    It is the story of notorious gangsters like Haji Mastan, Karim Lala, Varadarajan Mudaliar, Chhota Rajan, Abu Salem, but above all, it is the story of a young man who went astray despite having a father in the police force. Dawood Ibrahim was initiated into crime as a pawn in the hands of the Mumbai police and went on to wipe out the competition and eventually became the Mumbai police’s own nemesis.The narrative encompasses several milestones in the history of crime in India, from the rise of the Pathans, formation of the Dawood gang, the first ever supari, mafia’s nefarious role in Bollywood, Dawood’s move to Karachi, and Pakistan’s subsequent alleged role in sheltering one of the most wanted persons in the world. This story is primarily about how a boy from Dongri became a don in Dubai, and captures his bravado, focus, ambition, and lust for power in a gripping narrative. The meticulously researched book provides an in-depth and comprehensive account of the mafia’s games of supremacy and internecine warfare.

    No less was the struggle of Indian manes against British rule and for freedom and liberation of the mother country. The author’s tribute to the martyrs and his letters to dear ones from Andamans, miscellaneous statements and writings are also included in this book. The first four epochs are covered in only hundred plus pages while the last two epochs span almost four hundred plus pages, signifying the importance that the author gave to this period.So far we have been given the picture of British rule, the history and politics in India by foreign and leftist writers, but in this book Veer Savarkar makes us look at the country’s history and politics from the Bharatiya perspective. Not only does he analyse the mistakes committed by Hindus since the time of Alexander’s invasion till the British rule, he tries to enlighten our minds with the prevalent situation in his time. All that he himself learnt from history, he tries to correct through this book of his.

    The adolescent Elie and his family, among hundreds of thousands of Jews from all parts of Eastern Europe, are cruelly deported from their hometown to the horrors of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. Wiesel writes of their battle for survival, and of his battle with God for a way to understand the wanton cruelty he witnesses each day.In the short novel Dawn (1961), Elisha - the sole survivor of his family, whose immolation he witnessed at Auschwitz - has survived the Second World War and settled in Palestine. Apprenticed to a Jewish terrorist gang, he is commanded to execute a British officer who has been taken hostage. During the lonely hours before dawn, he meditates on the act of murder he is waiting to commit.In The Accident, (1962), Wiesel's second novel, Elisha, now a journalist living in New York, is the victim of a nearly fatal automobile accident. This fiction questions the limits of the spirit and the self: Can Holocaust survivors forge a new life without the memories of the old? As the author writes in his introduction, "In Night it is the 'I' who speaks; in the other two [narratives], it is the 'I' who listens and questions." Wiesel's trilogy offers meditations on mankind's attraction to violence and on the temptation of self-destruction.

    But for Kastur, the child bride who married the boy next door, Mohandas was a sexually-driven, self-righteous, and overbearing husband.Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was sworn to poverty, celibacy and the cause for India’s freedom; Kastur spent sixty-two years of her life, juggling the roles of a devoted wife, a satyagrahi and sacrificing mother, who was eclipsed because of a man who almost became God for India’s multitude. Gandhi was an intolerant father to Harilal, his wayward son, driven to debauchery; Kasturba paid the price for her son’s unending misery.Kastur is long dead, but she lives on in the pages of her diary…. Renowned author Neelima Dalmia Adhar lays it bare to tell the world what it meant to be Kasturba Gandhi, wife of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi –- in a gripping tale of unconditional love, passion, sex, ecstasy and the ultimate liberation that every woman seeks.