Tag: literary

Book Reviews, reading

What I’m Reading

Gargi Mehra

Remember when I said I had embarked on a reading spree? That’s dwindled just a little. Since I last wrote in, I’ve finished My Sister the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite and a couple of other books. I loved the dark humour and the lithe female serial killer, though it seemed to me a little like an abrupt end.

A shorter more truncated list this time, but still containing valuable gems that I would urge you to check out!

One Way to Love (Book 1 of the Jasmine Villa series) by Andaleeb Wajid

Andaleeb Wajid has deservedly earned the title of ‘The prolific author you may not have heard of’! She writes easy-to-read books featuring Indian women, primarily romances but she’s dabbled successfully in horror too! This is the first of her books I’ve read, and I loved it! Its simple but absorbing, an enchanting realistic tale of love-cum-arranged marriage.

Arrivals and Departures by Vrinda Baliga

This is the author’s second collection after Name, Place, Animal, Thing. Any short story by Vrinda Baliga is guaranteed to delight, and collection doubly so. The relationships depicted in her stories, the elegant turns of phrase, and the varied settings – what’s not to love?

Less by Andrew Greer

I’m late to the party for this book. I know it won the Pulitzer Prize in 2018, but I had bought it and let it languish. Criminal, I know. I’m only about a quarter of the way through and I can tell you to go read it immediately if you haven’t done so already!

What are you reading now? Any book you would like to recommend?

Lit Journals

Market Spotlight: Ilanot Review

Gargi Mehra

In 2017, I had written a story in epistolary form as part of a prompt. Once I’d revised it to my satisfaction, I searched for markets and came across Ilanot Review, a journal from Israel!

Their call for submissions mentioned a ‘Letters’ theme for their upcoming issue. It excited me to find a market that looked a perfect fit, but to be sure I scouted their archives and read a few of the stories and essays available online.

After due diligence, I submitted my story ‘Perils in the Post’. I was quite excited about this story, because it was my first story in letters and also my first story not based in the modern era.

The acceptance mail arrived quite quickly, within a week. I went back-and-forth for edits with the editors as usual. After a few days, things were all set and ready to go. The changes had greatly improved my story, and three months later the issue was published online. You can read my story here.

This is not a paying journal. The quality of stories is quite good and enjoyable.

Fortunately, their submissions window is currently open, until 15th December for their winter issue themed ‘Home/Work’. If you have anything that suits the theme, be sure to send it across right away!

You Beneath Your Skin
Book Reviews

You Beneath Your Skin

Gargi Mehra
You Beneath Your Skin Cover reveal

Today it is my privilege to reveal the cover for Damyanti Biswas‘s debut crime novel, You Beneath Your Skin to be published this September by Simon & Schuster, India. I’ve known Damyanti since so long I can’t even remember. Though we’ve never met in person I feel like I know her as well as my in-person friends!

So, without further ado, here’s the cover! The red and black suggests blood, murder, intrigue and suspense – all the key ingredients of an awesome crime story. The shadowy face beneath the title provokes curiosity. It makes you wonder who she is, and what her story might be.

You Beneath Your Skin

Lies. Ambition. Family.

It’s a dark, smog-choked New Delhi winter. Indian American single mother Anjali Morgan juggles her job as a psychiatrist with caring for her autistic teenage son. She is in a long-standing affair with ambitious Police Commissioner Jatin Bhatt – an irresistible attraction that could destroy both their lives.

Jatin’s home life is falling apart: his handsome and charming son is not all he appears to be, and his wife has too much on her plate to pay attention to either husband or son. But Jatin refuses to listen to anyone, not even the sister to whom he is deeply attached.

Across the city there is a crime spree: slum women found stuffed in trash bags, faces and bodies disfigured by acid. And as events spiral out of control Anjali is horrifyingly at the centre of it all.

In a sordid world of poverty, misogyny, and political corruption, Jatin must make some hard choices. But what he unearths is only the tip of the iceberg. Together with Anjali he must confront old wounds and uncover long-held secrets before it is too late.

Check out this book if you like pacy reads that also engage with various social issues.

Pre-order YOU BENEATH YOUR SKIN here.

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You Beneath Your Skin Back Cover

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You beneath Your Skin Damyanti
The Author Damyanti Biswas

Do you read crime novels? What do you think of the cover of You Beneath Your Skin? Would you like to read You Beneath Your Skin, and make a pre-order?

For You Beneath Your Skin, all proceeds to the author would be divided between Chhanv Foundation and Project WHY.

To support the organisations, pre-order HERE.

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Damyanti Biswas lives in Singapore, and works with Delhi’s underprivileged children as part of Project Why, a charity that promotes education and social enhancement in underprivileged communities. Her short stories have been published in magazines in the US, UK, and Asia, and she helps edit the Forge Literary Magazine. You can find her on her blog and twitter.