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HT Picks; New Reads
On the reading list this week is a suspenseful tale where the cost of uncovering the truth may be too high to bear, a fable that blends magic realism and a deep understanding of human nature, and a volume on how India can shape ongoing transitions to its advantage
Where the truth is elusive
Devin Pinto, the young son of Neja and Ramesh, is kidnapped on a day trip out of Colombo. No clues. No demands. No police involvement.
In the gilded, claustrophobic circles of Sri Lanka’s elite, appearances are everything – and secrets can be deadly. Neja and Ramesh must keep the incident out of the headlines and away from the prying eyes of entitled families, while navigating Neja’s fraught relationship with an enemy close to home: her powerful mother-in-law.
Who would dare take Devin – and why?
Is it the hunk of a swimming coach Neja gets too close to? Could it be the ghosts of their past – the ruthless creditors Ramesh deceived in a Ponzi scheme, now back for blood? Or is it the enigmatic Dr Haksar who helped them have a child? And what of the mysterious woman from the British High Commission, whose probing questions hint at knowledge she shouldn’t possess? As the whispers grow louder, one name resurfaces with terrifying weight: Satya Basu. Is she back to settle an old score?
From Colombo’s manicured gardens to Durham’s cobblestone streets, author Chhimi Tenduf-La unravels a suspenseful tale where the truth is elusive – and the cost of uncovering it may be too high to bear.*
About the stories we tell
Between a mother who dotes on him, a friend who is unwaveringly loyal, and plenty of stories, there is little else that Kato appears to need. But what Kato wants more than anything is to be like everyone else. To be able to talk.
When a fabled Old One, Kene the giant, comes to him looking for a storyteller, Kato is sure that a mistake has been made. Over the course of the next year, Kato must find out for himself what having a voice really means, because the world he knows and the people in it are about to be changed forever.
In lyrical prose that blends magic realism and a deep understanding of human nature, Giants is a startling debut about the stories we tell and those that make us.*
Making sense of an uncertain time
A sense of uncertainty has clearly gripped the world as six transformative global transitions — ranging from geopolitical and geographical to geoeconomic and technological — unfold all at once. Policymakers are scrambling to make sense of these transitions even as people lurch to extremes in these times of insecurity laced with rising inequity. To make matters more complicated, today’s certitudes can evaporate by tomorrow — for countries, companies and citizens alike. ‘Chaos, contestation, and constant recalibration’ will, therefore, be with us for a while yet.Where does that leave over 800 million young Indians with their burgeoning aspirations? In Everything All At Once: India and the Six Simultaneous Global Transitions, Rajiv Kumar and Ishan Joshi suggest how India’s national goals could be defined and lay out the difficult but inescapable steps which will be required to achieve them. New Delhi has a historic opportunity to shape the ongoing transitions to its advantage. But the challenges are massive. Business-as-usual just won’t do if we want to see India as Viksit Bharat in the next 25 years.An innovative and flexible policy framework has to be the sine qua non going forward. Forging a ‘Coalition of the Willing’ to deal with the six simultaneous transitions facing the Global South is critical. Its components would include — but not be limited to — urgently tackling the looming climate catastrophe; adapting frontier technologies including AI to our advantage; and ensuring our strategic autonomy to deal with the passing of Pax Americana and the inexorable Rise of China.Everything All At Once: India and the Six Simultaneous Global Transitions is essential reading for anyone drawn to the future that’s quietly stepping into the present.*
*All copy from book flap.
