The Caravan — February 2018

92 THE CARAVAN

“People come from
everywhere to this city;/ All
are welcomed with a stare in
New Delhi,” writes Michael
Creighton in the title poem
of his first book, New Delhi
Long Songs. Creighton is an American poet who has taught
middle school in Delhi for over a decade. His poems are
marked by compassion and empathy for ordinary people—
peons, shopkeepers and labourers—in this metropolis of
migrants, who seek small pleasures in a difficult city.

speaking tiger, 136 pages, S 299

THE BOOKSHELF

The elephanT

in The Room

Women DRaW

TheiR WoRlD

Spring Collective

A refugee from East Paki-

stan who grew up in a gov-

ernment resettlement colony

in Dandakaranya, Chattis-

garh, Manoranjan Byapari

ran away and ended up in

Kolkata, became involved in the violence of the Naxalite

movement and later led a life of low-wage work and petty

crime. He eventually landed in prison, where he learned to

read and write, and slowly transformed his life. Byapari is a

Namashudra, part of one of the largest Dalit communities in

Bengal. Class, caste, politics and violence are as intertwined

in his narrative as they are in Bengali society.

sage samya, 550 pages, S 384

inTeRRogaTing

my ChanDal life

an auTobiogRaphy

of a DaliT

by Manoranjan Byapari

Translated by

Sipra Mukherjee

fi Re anD fuRy

insiDe The TRump

WhiTe house

Michael Wolff

The journalist Michael

Wolff had unprecedented

access to the White House

after Donald Trump

became the president of the

United States of America, and was witness to many private

conversations and meetings between White House staff

as well as members of Trump’s family. In this book, Wolff

reveals shocking stories about chaos and mismanagement in

the Oval Office, particularly the conflict between Trump’s

chief strategist Steve Bannon and senior advisor Jared

Kushner, and tensions among other members of Trump’s

fa m i ly.

hachette, 336 pages, S 699

neW Delhi

love songs

Michael Creighton

This book brings together the work of 16 feminist comic

artists from India and Germany and their views on identity,

power, family, sex, their bodies and various issues that are

taboo in public discourse. The comic form allows these

artists to deploy humour and images—such as Nina Pagalies’

piece on ten temples dedicated to the vagina—to explore

subversive topics.

zubaan, 224 pages, S 850