Around Mid-August, in Paris, one unmistakably feels that the Summer is almost over: the mornings are cooler, the days shorter and the shop-windows in Saint-Germain-des-Prés are already displaying the fall and winter fashions. But coming close to September brings with it a certain nostalgia for summer days already gone it is also pregnant with an anticipatory excitement about the forthcoming cultural events and new discoveries.
 The Village Voice Bookshop opens its 2005-2006 Readers Series with an Indian writer from New Delhi, Tarun J Tejpal, who will be in Paris for the launching of the French translation of his novel: The Alchemy of Desire. Tarun Tejpal will discuss and read from his novel at the Village Voice on September 8th. Set against the backdrop of the city landscapes of Chandigar, New Delhi and the eerie and misty landscapes of the Lower Himalayas, The Alchemy of Desire is a novel about passion, but also about the History, past and present of India. It is a meditation on the mystery as much of sexual desire as of the writing process.
 If you have enjoyed reading The Alchemy of Desire, you may be tempted to read another contemporary Indian writer: Pankaj Mishra, the young and gifted author of The Romantics and An End to Suffering: The Buddha in the World, takes the reader on a travelogue through India, through History, and through the religions of his country. Both books, (Picador UK, paperbacks) are informative and beautifully written.
 We also recommend another novel which takes place in India, Guardian of the Dawn written by an American author, Richard Zimler. This historical novel tells the story of a young man whose family has fled the Inquisition in Portugal to settle in Goa. Caught between the far-reaching, devastating powers of the Inquisition and his love for a Hindu girl, the hero embarks on a journey of betrayal, revenge, passion and mystery. Richard Zimler, the author of the best-selling novel The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon has been called the American Umberto Ecco.
The latest events in Saudi Arabia, namely the death of King Fahd, may be an invitation to read or reread the very well-documented The Rise, Corruption and Coming Fall of The House of Saud by Said-k-Aburish (Bloomsbury, paperback).
 With the on-going disagreement between Iran and the West (the USA and the EEC talking, this time, in one voice) over the reopening of the Ispahan nuclear power plant, several books on Iran may help us better grasp the complexities of Iran and the region:
Persian Mirrors by Elaine Sciolino (Touchstone, paperback )
The Iranian Labyrinth by Dilip Hiro (Avon, paperback )
In the Rose Garden of the Martyrs: A Memoir of Iran by Christopher de Bellaigue (HarperPerennial, paperback)
Searching for Hassan: A Journey to the Heart of Iran by Terence Ward (Anchor, paperback)
Journey from the Land of No: A Girlhood caught in Revolutionary Iran by Roya Hakakian (Three Rivers Press, paperback)
And always:
Reading Lolita in Tehran by Asar Nafisi (Vintage, paperback)
Persepolis I : The Story of a Childhood, graphic memoir by Marjane Satrapi
Persepolis II: The Story of a Return, graphic memoir by Marjane Satrapi
Embroideries by Marjane Satrapi
 This month of August we commemorate all over the world the 60th anniversary of a tragedy which has irrevocably changed our consciousness: the dropping of the atomic bomb over Hiroshima and Nagasaki. A time to read or re-read:
Hiroshima by John Hersey (Penguin, paperback )
The Ash Garden by Denis Bock "A crystalline meditation on the defining event of the Twentieth century and its aftermath..." (Vintage, paperback)
Speaking about Nuclear disaster, Svetlana Alexievich's Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster is an extremely poignant requiem and an homage to the forgotten victims of the Chernobyl disaster (Dalkey Archive, hardcover). |
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