HT Picks; New Reads
On the reading list this week are stories that consider the fateful consequences that can spring from brief encounters, a volume about the twin battles that stopped the Japanese invasion of India, and a story of the joys of unexpected friendships and the beauty of nature
Of New York and Golden Age Hollywood
From the best selling author of The Lincoln Highway and A Gentleman in Moscow, and Rules of Civility, comes a richly detailed collection of six stories based in New York City and a novella set in Golden Age Hollywood. The New York stories, most of which take place around the year 2000, consider the fateful consequences that can spring from brief encounters and the delicate mechanics of compromise that operate at the heart of modern marriages. In the novella, Eve in Hollywood, Towles takes us through the movie sets, bungalows, and dive bars of Los Angeles. This is a collection written with wit, humour, and sophistication.*
A turning point in the Second World War
The clash between the British Fourteenth Army and the Japanese Fifteenth Army at Imphal in Manipur and at Kohima in the then-Naga Hills of Assam in 1944 was the turning point in the Burma Campaign of the Second World War. It was at these twin battles that the Japanese invasion of India was stopped, with the Allies subsequently driving them out of Burma in 1945. The Japanese lost some 30,000 men, with another 23,000 injured, in what is considered one of their greatest ever defeats on land.
In April 2013, Imphal-Kohima was named “Britain’s Greatest Battle” by the UK’s National Army Museum. Indians fought on both sides – as part of the British Army and alongside the Japanese as soldiers of the Indian National Army (INA). This book is the first battlefield guide for Imphal and Kohima and makes extensive use of maps and present-day photographs of the sites to tell the thrilling, tragic story of the historic battle of Imphal-Kohima, 1944.*
Of the simple pleasures of being young
From the master storyteller comes a wonderful new tale about friendship, eccentric relatives, ghosts, nature, and the enduring magic of childhood. Ruskin is 11 years old and visiting his granny’s home in Dehra during his winter holidays. Follow along as he takes you through the many things he experiences during his time there — a mischievous ghost hiding in an old peepul tree, delicious baked treats enclosed within a magic box, a man with a tin box containing odd knick-knacks, uncomfortable yet exciting tonga rides, surprising run-ins with Quit India protestors, the warm company of old Miss Kellner, pretty weeds that he calls “Purple Hearts”, and much else besides. Punctuating all these happenings is the hoopoe, a little bird with an attractive hairdo, which appears in granny’s garden at 3 pm every day, much to Ruskin’s delight. In The Hoopoe on the Lawn, Ruskin Bond weaves together a story of the joys of unexpected friendships, the beauty of nature, and the simple pleasures of being young.*
*All copy from book flap.
