THE VAULT OF VISHNU

 A Pallava prince travels to Cambodia to be crowned king, carrying with him secrets that will be the cause of great wars many centuries later.

A Buddhist monk in ancient China treks south to India, searching for the missing pieces of a puzzle that could make his emperor all-powerful.

A Neolithic tribe fights to preserve their sacred knowledge, oblivious to the war drums on the Indo-China border.

Meanwhile, far away in the temple town of Kanchipuram, a reclusive scientist deciphers ancient texts even as a team of secret agents shadows his every move.

Caught in the storm is a young investigator with a complex past of her own, who must race against time to maintain the balance of power in the new world.

Welcome back to the exciting and shadowy world of Ashwin Sanghi, where myth and history blend into edge-of-the-seat action.

Review

In an enthralling alchemy of myth and science Ashwin Sanghi gives us the sixth book in his Bharat series. As with all Ashwin’s books, the research is meticulous and the technical(ese) leaves one gasping as 'The Vault of Vishnu' takes the reader through the highs and lows of history, myth, physics, warfare technology, AI and biochemistry. – The Times of India

The Vault of Vishnu, like all of Ashwin’s books is a heady mix of history, myth, science and thrills. – The Hindu

Sanghi’s latest work uses his favourite tool – mythology, and blends it with history to deliver some “edge-of-the-seat action.” – Hindustan Times

About the Author

Ashwin Sanghi ranks among India’s highest-selling English fiction authors. He has written several bestsellers (The Rozabal Line, Chanakya’s Chant, The Krishna Key, The Sialkot Saga, Keepers of the Kalachakra) and two New York Times bestselling crime thrillers with James Patterson, Private India (sold in the US as City on Fire) and Private Delhi (sold in the US as Count to Ten). He has also co-authored several non-fiction titles in the 13 Steps series on Luck, Wealth, Marks, Health and Parenting.

Ashwin has been included by Forbes India in their Celebrity 100. He is a winner of the Crossword Popular Choice Award 2012, Amazon India Top-10 eBook 2018, Atta Galatta Popular Choice Award 2018, WBR Iconic Achievers Award 2018 and the Lit-O-Fest Literature Legend Award 2018.

He was educated at Cathedral and John Connon School, Mumbai, and St Xavier’s College, Mumbai. He holds an MBA from Yale University. Ashwin lives in Mumbai with his wife, Anushika, and his son, Raghuvir.

You can connect with Ashwin via the following channels:

Website www.sanghi.in

Facebook  facebook.com/ashwinsanghi

Twitter  twitter.com/ashwinsanghi

YouTube  youtube.com/user/ashwinsanghi

Instagram  instagram.com/ashwin.sanghi

LinkedIn  linkedin.com/in/ashwinsanghi

MRITYUNJAYA BY SHIVAJI SAWANT

MRITYUNJAYA BY SHIVAJI SAWANT

The Marathi Novel As Epic The search for the meaning of being is man's eternal quest and the subject of his greatest creations. Shivaji Sawant's

Mrityunjaya is an outstanding instance of such a literary masterpiece in which a contemporary Marathi novelist investigates the meaning of the bewildering skein that is life through the personae of the Mahabharata protagonists. For over two decades since its first publication the vast non- Marathi and non-Hindi readership remained deprived of this remarkable exploration of the human psyche till the publication of this English translation by the Writers workshop - a contribution for which there is much to be grateful for Mrityunjaya is the autobiography of Karna, and yet it is not just that. With deceptive case, Sawant brings into play an exceptional stylistic innovation by combining six "dramatic soliloquies" to form the nine books of this novel of epic dimensions. Four books are spoken by Karna. These are interspersed with a book each from the lips of his unwed mother Kunti, Duryodhana (who considers Karna his mainstay), Shon (Shatruntapa, his foster-brother, who here-worships him), his wife Vrishali to whom he is like a god and, last of all, Krishna. Sawant depicts an uncanny similarity between Krishna and Karna and hints at a mystic link between them, investing his protagonist with a more-than-human aura to offset the un-heroic and even unmanly acts which mar this tremendously complex and utterly fascinating creating of Vyasa. The beginning of the novel is riveting in its newness and simplicity: "I want to say something today.... a time comes when the dead have to speak too. When this flesh-and-bones living behave like the dead, then the dead have to come alive and speak out". That is Sawant's pregnant comment on the state of contemporary society, where class and caste ride roughshod over innate worth; where the most intimate ties are denied for the sake of conformity with social norms.

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March 24, 2021 at 02:55PM

The Bawla Murder Case

The Bawla Murder Case

 On 12 January 1925, twenty-five-year-old Abdul Kader Bawla, one of the richest men in colonial Bombay and a corporator in the Bombay Municipal Corporation, was murdered on Malabar Hill while out for an evening drive with his mistress, Mumtaz Begum. The objective of the attack was to abduct Mumtaz, who was saved by the appearance of four British army officers who fended off the attackers with nothing more than a golf club.

Investigations by the Bombay police revealed a link between the crime and the princely state of Indore. The subsequent controversy led to the abdication of Maharaja Tukojirao Holkar III, the ruler of Indore, to avoid an inquiry. A century later, the sensational murder case continues to be a milestone in the history of the Mumbai police. With a narrative built around a beautiful courtesan, a wealthy heir, a spurned king, an upright police officer and a sensational murder, this book is a masterful chronicle of early twentieth-century colonial India.

About the Author

Dhaval Kulkarni is a Mumbai-based journalist with around two decades of reporting experience across newspapers like the Times of India, Hindustan Times, the Indian Express, New Indian Express and DNA. He writes on a broad range of subjects like governance and politics, caste, identity and social movements, environment and forests, health, infrastructure, heritage, culture and archaeology. His byline and articles have appeared in reputed print and digital platforms like News18.com, The Print, Economic and Political Weekly (EPW), Loksatta.com, Chitralekha (Marathi), The Asian Age, Deccan Chronicle and the Free Press Journal. His book, The Cousins Thackeray: Uddhav, Raj and the Shadow of Their Senas was published in 2019.

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March 17, 2021 at 01:42PM

To kill a Mockingbird

 

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'Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird.'

A lawyer's advice to his children as he defends the real mockingbird of Harper Lee's classic novel - a black man falsely charged with the rape of a white girl. Through the young eyes of Scout and Jem Finch, Harper Lee explores with exuberant humour the irrationality of adult attitudes to race and class in the Deep South of the 1930s. The conscience of a town steeped in prejudice, violence and hypocrisy is pricked by the stamina of one man's struggle for justice. But the weight of history will only tolerate so much.

To Kill a Mockingbird is a coming-of-age story, an anti-racist novel, a historical drama of the Great Depression and a sublime example of the Southern writing tradition.

Review

Someone rare has written this very fine novel, a writer with the liveliest sense of life and the warmest, most authentic humour. A touching book; and so funny, so likeable. ― Truman Capote

There is humour as well as tragedy in this book, besides its faint note of hope for human nature; and it is delightfully written ― Sunday Times

No one ever forgets this book ― Independent

One of the best novels I remember ... uniquely unsentimental ― Guardian

Her book is lifted … into the rare company of those that linger in the memory ― Bookman

About the Author

Harper Lee was born in 1926 in Monroeville, Alabama. She attended Huntington College and studied law at the University of Alabama. She is the author of the acclaimed novels To Kill a Mockingbird and Go Set a Watchman, and was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, the Presidential Medal of Freedom and numerous other literary awards and honours. She died on 19 February 2016.

The Pirate

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In a raging sandstorm, two men with their pregnant wives fatefully meet in the desert: Samir Al Fay, a Muslim doctor whose son will be named heir to the Prince of Beirut; and Isaiah Ben Ezra, a grizzled Jewish militant Zionist heading to the Promised Land. The women give birth—Samir’s unconscious wife delivers a stillborn girl, Ben Ezra’s wife dies delivering a healthy boy. Transcending their differences, Ben Ezra gives his son to Samir. Only these two men know the truth of the boy’s origin, and Samir vows to raise him as his true son—naming him Badyr.

Years later, Badyr—now known as “The Pirate”—has become one of the wealthiest and most powerful Arabic entrepreneurs in the Middle East. Educated in the West, Badyr is more western than Arabic—but remains grounded in his perceived heritage and distrustful of Jews. The Pirate is seemingly invincible, and with his looks, charm, and unending supply of money, no woman can resist him. But two women have power over his fate: one a long-lost love, another obsessed with the search for her missing father.

However, it’s not just Badyr’s heart at risk. A web of political intrigue, corruption and terrorism threatens the business empire he worked to build, and he is drawn into a shadowy world of decadence, passion, and betrayal. Soon Badyr must decide whom he can trust, risking his life, family and fortune in that decision—and finds allies in the most unlikely of places, shocked by the reality he discovers.

From the author of The New York Times #1 bestseller The Carpetbaggers comes a compelling tale of decadence, luxury, greed, and international intrigue set against a backdrop of Middle East oil and global terrorism.

EXODUS BY LEON URIS

 

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Passionate summary of the inhuman treatment of the Jewish people in Europe, of the exodus in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries to Palestine, and of the triumphant founding of the new Israel.”—The New York Times

Exodus is an international publishing phenomenon—the towering novel of the twentieth century's most dramatic geopolitical event.  Leon Uris magnificently portrays the birth of a new nation in the midst of enemies—the beginning of an earthshaking struggle for power.  Here is the tale that swept the world with its fury: the story of an American nurse, an Israeli freedom fighter caught up in a glorious, heartbreaking, triumphant era. Here is Exodus—one of the great bestselling novels of all time.

Review

“Passionate summary of the inhuman treatment of the Jewish people in Europe, of the exodus in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries to Palestine, and of the triumphant founding of the new Israel.” —The New York Times

From the Publisher

Exodus is an international publishing phenomenon--the towering novel of the twentieth century's most dramatic geopolitical event. Leon Uris magnificently portrays the birth of a new nation in the midst of enemies--the beginning of an earthshaking struggle for power. Here is the tale that swept the world with its fury: the story of an American nurse, an Israeli freedom fighter caught up in a glorious, heartbreaking, triumphant era. Here is Exodus --one of the great best-selling novels of all time.

"Passionate summary of the inhuman treatment of the Jewish people in Europe, of the exodus in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries to Palestine, and of the triumphant founding of the new Israel." -- The New York Times

The Death's Mistress

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Death's Mistress: Sister of Darkness launches The Nicci Chronicles, Terry Goodkind's entirely new series with a cast of characters centered on one of his best-loved characters in the now-concluded Sword of Truth.

One-time lieutenant of the evil Emperor Jagang, known as “Death’s Mistress” and the “Slave Queen”, the deadly Nicci captured Richard Rahl in order to convince him that the Imperial Order stood for the greater good. But it was Richard who converted Nicci instead, and for years thereafter she served Richard and Kahlan as one of their closest friends―and one of their most lethal defenders.

Now, with the reign of Richard and Kahlan finally stabilized, Nicci has set out on her own for new adventures. One of her jobs will be to keep her travelling companion, the unworldly prophet Nathan, out of trouble. But her real task will be to scout the far reaches of Richard Rahl’s realm. This will take her and Nathan to visit the mysterious witch-woman Red, to tangle with the street life of the port city of Tanimura, to fight lethal battles on the high seas, and ultimately to a vast magical confrontation far from home…with the future of life itself, in the Old World and the New, at stake.

Full of life and story, this is a sweeping, engaging tale in the grand Goodkind manner

#terrygoodkind # Niccichronicles #bestseller #originalnicci