The acclaimed author and Director of Jaipur Literature Festival Namita Gokhale lists The Witch in the Peepul Tree as one of her favourite reads in Open Magazine’s Best of 2023 Books: My Choice.
NAMITA GOKHALE, Author
“If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking” – Haruki Murakami
THE INDIAN CAT by BN Goswamy (Aleph) . The last book by the late BNG is a fitting tribute to his multifaceted genius. It is a journey of wonder through feline portraiture and narrative, transporting the reader across oral and written literature, chronicles and poetry, popular idioms and proverbs, and other catlore. The sketches and colour illustrations will touch the hearts of all cat lovers. Whimsical, learned, and encyclopaedic, it is a volume to love and cherish.
In his Prefatory Note, the author quoted his Swiss friend; “You are an art historian, Brijinder, are you not?” “I am, or so I think” I replied. “Then, you should love cats: all art historians do.” Salaam, Goswamy Saheb.
The Witch in the Peepul Tree by Arefa Tehsin (HarperCollins). This novel took me by surprise. I knew Tehsin as a gifted writer of young-adult fiction. The book was presented in the genre of suspense/crime fiction, and indicated something in the realm of the supernatural. It proved to be much more than that.
It is Makar Sankranti, 1950, when 16-year-old Sanaz’s body is discovered in her father Dada Bhai’s house in Bohrawadi, Udaipur.
The narrative follows the arc of a single day through multiple perspectives and points of view. The labyrinth of memories and revelations encapsulated in that one fateful day offers an unblinking study of a feudal society, as it stands at the crossroads of political change. There is also the conflict between hopeful youth and tired, jaded age. The old haveli, with its whispers and secrets, is evoked with love and sensitivity. I savoured this taut and haunting read.
Shadows at Noon: The South Asian Twentieth Century by Joya Chatterji (Viking) . This magisterial tome runs to 842 pages. It wears its erudition lightly, and is written with verve, style and insight. I cannot do justice to it in a paragraph or two. Immersive and experiential, it covers an array of themes, from ‘Competing Visions in Nationalism’ to ‘Migrations at Home and Abroad: South Asian Diaspora’ to ‘The Household, Marriage and Family’ and ‘The Politics of Food’. It is a book that belongs in every serious library, private or public.
His Majesty’s Headhunters: The Siege of Kohima that Shaped World History by Mmhonlumo Kikon (Vintage).The Siege of Kohima had a pivotal role to play in the outcome of World War II. This important book, written with authority and insight, reclaims the historical narrative to be retold in the authentic voice of the people who battled there. In the introduction, Kikon says; “The Battle of Kohima has been written about with momentous vigour and skill by both American and British historians. But that is just the tale told so far by everyone except the Nagas. This is as much the story of Kohima as it is of the manner in which this unlikely capital saved the British Empire and the Allied Forces from defeat.”
A fascinating and engrossing read, told by a poet, politician and scholar.
Arefa Tehsin 
Wow! Congratulations👏💐I will try to get hold of it soon.
Thank you! Will look forward to knowing how you like it.