Lullaby by Leïla Slimani
Price: Rs 798
When Myriam, a French-Moroccan lawyer, decides to return to work after having children, she and her husband look for the perfect caretaker for their two young children. They never dreamed they would find Louise: a quiet, polite and devoted woman who sings to their children, cleans the family’s chic apartment in Paris’s upscale tenth arrondissement, stays late without complaint and is able to host enviable birthday parties. The couple and nanny become more dependent on each other. But as jealousy, resentment and suspicions increase, Myriam and Paul’s idyllic tableau is shattered. The story is a brilliant character study into the mind of a nanny who does the unthinkable. As the key character, we learn more about her than her employers ever bother to know, and we can see the slow unraveling of her mind. Lullaby is a taut and exquisitely written novel that will keep you up all night desperately turning the pages.
Good Reads
No Wall Too High by Xu Hongci
Price: Rs 798
Xu Hongci was a bright young student at the Shanghai No. 1 Medical College, spending his days studying to be a professor and going to the movies with his girlfriend. He was also an idealistic and loyal member of the Communist Party and was generally liked and well respected. But when Mao delivered his famous February 1957 speech inviting “a hundred schools of thought [to] contend,” Xu Hongci responded by posting a criticism of the party―a near-fatal misstep. He soon found himself a victim of the Anti-Rightist Campaign, condemned to spend the next fourteen years in the laogai. Xu Hongci became one of the roughly 550,000 Chinese unjustly imprisoned after the spring of 1957, and despite the horrific conditions and terrible odds, he was determined to escape. He failed three times before finally succeeding, in 1972. Xu Hongci’s remarkable memoir recounts his life from childhood through his final prison break.
Mumbai Avengers by S Hussain Zaidi
Price: Rs 560
The terrorists who planned the terrorist attacks of 26/11 have disappeared into the darkness they emerged from and Mumbai seethes with fury. All the Indian government has achieved is the establishment of counter terrorism committees. But one man will stop at nothing in his quest to avenge the dastardly act. Retired Lt Gen. Sayed Ali Waris of the Indian army masterminds a covert mission with a team of daredevil agents a sharp policeman, a suave tech expert, a cerebral scientist, and two battle hardened army officers. They strike like lightning even combing through every land and possibility in pursuit of the deadly killers. From Sweden to Istanbul, through Dubai, Pakistan and Singapore, they annihilate the perpetrators with single-minded focus, veiling the deaths as natural ones to save the Indian government diplomatic and political embarrassment. The stakes have never been higher.
