Former DGP MP causes excitement in book corners

Three new titles have created a stir in the book market. One of them is Shackle the Storm by retired Madhya Pradesh police director general Shailendra Srivastava. Only a few from Bhopal have attempted a crime thriller in English, though many have written biographies, autobiographies, memoirs, histories and political stories. They have emerged from Srivastava’s personal experiences. Rupa Publication released the book this month.

It begins with the story Lucky Baton. Every word of the story changes from the beginning into an image, which leaves a lasting impression on the mind of a reader who comes across the stories of two young girls. A man driven by lust preyed on two underage girls whom he killed after forcing himself on them. However, the girls did not survive to tell the tales of their misery. Yet, the story is there to tell you how cruel the people are who surround you; and how such people are put behind bars.

The reader comes across the notorious Dawood Ibrahim who kidnaps the son of an industrialist. The man is rescued from the clutches of Dawood’s henchmen. It tells the portrait of a crook who rapes and eliminates his own granddaughter. He is sent to jail where he dies. The reader will enjoy the novella filled with such thrilling stories.

Until August by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s, En Agosto Nos Vemos (Until August) is another novella that has been in the spotlight. In his last years, Marquez suffered from memory loss, which diminished his ability to write as fluently as he did. Yet the magical touch of Gabo, as Marquez was endearingly nicknamed, is present on every page of this novella.

The Nobel Prize winner put the manuscript of the novella aside because it did not meet expectations, but he had been working on it for a few years since 1997. Nevertheless, he said he was not satisfied with it. Therefore, he left it unfinished. Because he suffered from memory loss, he could not follow the plot. His family also decided not to publish it.

In 2002, his sons, Rodrigo and Gonzalo Garcia Barcha, read the manuscript and discovered its literary value. They edited the work and decided to publish it, although their father told them to make sure it was destroyed. The manuscript was published posthumously on his 97th birthday on March 6 this year and was available in the Indian market sometime in mid-April.

The book’s preface, written by the author’s sons, says that their father once said, “Memory is both my source material and my tool. Without it, there is nothing.” The novella’s protagonist, Ana Magdalena Bach, who lives with her husband, travels every year to the island where her mother is buried; but despite her happy life, she brings a new lover to the island she sails to. Anne McLean translated the book and Penguin published it.

Beasts of England by Adam Biles

Another novel is Adam Biles’ Beasts of England. It is about a Manor Farm that has reinvented itself as the petting zoo of the South of England, where people and animals are treated equally. Visitors come and ride the farm’s inhabitants. The novel has a plot within the plot, which continues in secret. The circumstances of the farm’s inhabitants are not as good as they seem. The plot of the novel is an extension of George Orwell’s Animal Farm and paints a true portrait of modern politics, where elections are rigged; a community is plugged by factions; and quotes from holy books are cited. Picador India published the novel last year, but it was available earlier this year.

Published: Sunday, July 21, 2024, 08:39 AM IST