BACKFLAP

MITHILA’S world is bound by a wall enclosing the city of Sumer — nobody goes out, nothing comes in. Within the city, everyone knows their place. But when Mithila tries to cross the wall, every power in Sumer comes together to stop her. To break the rules is to risk all of civilization collapsing. But to follow them is to never know: who built the wall and why. Gautam Bhatia’s fresh voice explores what it means to truly be free.

THIS is a deeply personal and political story of KTN Kottoor, who is born into a family of rural wealth in a village nestled in British Malabar. As patriotic fervour grips the country, a veritable avalanche of new ideas and ideals shapes the young KTN. Award-winning author Thachom Poyil Rajeevan weaves a magical biography of a fictional writer, one inhabited by goddesses and ghosts, a fortune-telling parrot, dead humans in the avatar of crows, and a blind woman who hears — and sees — better than anyone else.

SOMETIMES serious, sometimes funny, ‘From the Pen of a Cop’ is a compilation of middles penned by P Lal, former IPS officer of Punjab cadre (1969 batch). The tragedy at the Kumbh of Allahabad in 1954, how to say no to gifts, the connection between babu and babudom, the proliferation in bureaucratic ranks — he writes in a simple yet lucid style. There is also a section on poems; a small section is dedicated to bhajans. Others books by him include ‘Samm’, a collection of stories and motivational messages, and ‘Let’s Laugh and Laugh’, a compilation of jokes.