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1. Smoke and Ashes

Author: Amitav Ghosh

Publisher: Fourth Estate India

Print Length: 408 pages

Release Date: 15 July 2023

Price: ₹542.00 (price may vary)

Review

When Amitav Ghosh began his research for the Ibis Trilogy some twenty years ago, he was startled to find how the lives of the nineteenth-century sailors and soldiers he wrote of were dictated not only by the currents of the Indian Ocean, but also by a precious commodity carried in enormous quantities on those currents: opium. Most surprising of all was the discovery that his own identity and family history were swept up in the story.

Smoke and Ashes is at once a travelogue, a memoir and an excursion into history, both economic and cultural. Ghosh traces the transformative effect the opium trade had on Britain, India and China, as well as on the world at large. Engineered by the British Empire, which exported opium from India to sell in China, the trade and its revenues were essential to the Empire's survival. Upon deeper exploration, Ghosh finds opium at the origins of some of the world's biggest corporations, several of America's most powerful families and institutions, and contemporary globalism itself. In India the long-term consequences were even more profound.

Moving deftly between horticultural histories, the mythologies of capitalism and the social and cultural repercussions of colonialism, Smoke and Ashes reveals the pivotal role one small plant has played in the making of the world as we know it - a world that is now teetering on the edge of catastrophe.

'In thinking about the opium poppy's role in history it is hard to ignore the feeling of an intelligence at work. The single most important indication of this is the poppy's ability to create cycles of repetition, which manifest themselves in similar phenomena over time. What the opium poppy does is clearly not random; it builds symmetries that rhyme with each other.

It is important to recognize that these cycles will go on repeating, because the opium poppy is not going away anytime soon. In Mexico, for instance, despite intensive eradication efforts the acreage under poppy cultivation has continued to increase. Indeed, there is more opium being produced in the world today than at any time in the past.

Only by recognizing the power and intelligence of the opium poppy can we even begin to make peace with it.'

About The Author

Amitav Ghosh was born in Calcutta, and grew up in India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka; he studied in Delhi, Oxford and Alexandria. He is the author of several acclaimed works of fiction and non-fiction including The Shadow Lines, The Glass Palace, The Hungry Tide, the Ibis Trilogy (comprising the novels Sea of Poppies, River of Smoke and Flood of Fire), Gun Island, The Great Derangement, The Nutmeg's Curse, Jungle Nama and The Living Mountain.

Amitav Ghosh's work has been translated into more than thirty languages. He has been awarded and felicitated across the world. In 2019 Foreign Policy magazine named him one of the most important global thinkers of the past decade. The same year, the Jnanpith Award, India's highest literary honour, was conferred on him: he was the first English-language writer to receive it.

2. Arthashastra by Kautilya

Author: Kautilya

Publisher: Fingerprint! Publishing

Print Length: 584 pages

Release Date: 15 July 2023

Price: ₹499.00(price may vary)

Review

A comprehensive guide to everything you need to know about the principles of politics, statecraft, and warfare tactics.

What makes a king powerful? What makes a kingdom undefeatable? What makes a government efficient? Kautilya’s Arthashastra answers all these questions and explores much more in this beautiful deluxe edition.

About The Author

Kautilya (also known as Chanakya and Vishnugupta) was an Indian philosopher, statesman, and royal advisor. The Mauryan Empire owes its prosperity and existence, in no small amount, to this driven man. Arthashastra and Neeti-shastra are Kautilya's notable works. They were written hundreds of years ago, but the teachings encapsulated in these works are practical and can be applied to situations in the modern-day world, as is evidenced by their popularity and wide readership. Translated as ‘the science of gaining wealth’, Arthashastra is a treatise on state governance, centred around the idea that an able government will lead to a generation of wealth for the people of the nation.

3. I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki

Author: Baek Sehee (Author), Anton Hur (Translator)

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

Print Length: 208 pages

Release Date: 6 July 2023

Price: (price may vary)

Review

THE PHENOMENAL KOREAN BESTSELLER, OVER 100,000 COPIES SOLD IN HARDBACK TRANSLATED BY INTERNATIONAL BOOKER SHORTLISTEE ANTON HUR 'Will strike a chord with anyone who feels that their public life is at odds with how they really feel inside.' Red PSYCHIATRIST: So how can I help you? ME: I don’t know, I’m – what’s the word – depressed? Do I have to go into detail? Baek Sehee is a successful young social media director at a publishing house when she begins seeing a psychiatrist about her – what to call it? – depression? She feels persistently low, anxious, endlessly self-doubting, but also highly judgemental of others. She hides her feelings well at work and with friends; adept at performing the calmness, even ease, her lifestyle demands. The effort is exhausting, overwhelming, and keeps her from forming deep relationships. This can't be normal. But if she's so hopeless, why can she always summon a desire for her favourite street food, the hot, spicy rice cake, tteokbokki? Is this just what life is like? Recording her conversations with her psychiatrist over 12 weeks, Baek begins to disentangle the feedback loops, knee-jerk reactions and harmful behaviours that keep her locked in a cycle of self-abuse. Part memoir, part self-help book, I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki is a book to keep close and to reach for in times of darkness. I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki comes in three different colours; the colour you receive will be chosen at random

About The Author

Born in 1990, Baek Sehee studied creative writing in university before working for five years at a publishing house. For ten years, she received psychiatric treatment for dysthymia (persistent mild depression), which became the subject of her essays, and then I Want to Die, but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki, books one and two. Her favorite food is tteokbokki, and she lives with her rescue dog Jaram.

4. R.A.W. Hitman

Author: S. Hussain Zaidi

Publisher: Simon & Schuster IND

Print Length: 304 pages

Release Date: 6 July 2023

Price: ₹352.00(price may vary)

Review

In September 2011, the double murder of gangsters Raju Pargai and Amit Arya rocked the Indian state of Uttarakhand. Pargai, who was well on his way to becoming a national security threat by smuggling weapons into India, had risen up the ranks of criminals quickly – but that also made him the target of Indian intelligence agencies, which then ordered the covert assassin named 'Agent Lima' to put him down.

The day after the murder, Laxman ‘Lucky’ Bisht – an NSG commando who had also been personal security officer of politicians such as L.K. Advani and then CM of Gujarat, Narendra Modi – was arrested from his home in Haldwani, accused of the double murder.

Thereafter begins a tale shrouded in mystery and suspense. Was Agent Lima and Lucky Bisht one and the same person? And if they were not the same person, why did Lucky Bisht languish in prison for more than five years, being transported from jail to jail, his bail application denied, while he was working for the government?

Master thriller-writer S. Hussain Zaidi is back with a tale of intrigue and deceit in R.A.W. HITMAN: THE REAL STORY OF AGENT LIMA.

Based upon true events, this is a book that will keep readers on their toes right till the end.

About The Author

S. Hussain Zaidi is a veteran investigative, crime and terror reporter with a career spanning decades. His previous books include Mafia Queens of Mumbai, Dongri to Dubai, Byculla to Bangkok, Mumbai Avengers and Eleventh Hour, some of which have been adapted into popular Bollywood films. Hussain Zaidi lives with his family in Mumbai.

5. Balidan

Author: Swapnil Pandey

Publisher: HarperCollins India

Print Length: 248 pages

Release Date: 7 July 2023

Price: ₹259.00 (price may vary)

Review

Few possess greater courage, yet remain in oblivion, than the Indian Para Special Forces. To these brave officers, worthy owners of the Balidan badge, is entrusted the safety of the most perilous heights and the annihilation of the darkest underbellies of terrorism. The legacy of these warriors is shrouded in mystery and legend. So secretive are their missions that little is known about them beyond code names like Dagger, Ghost, Viper or Desert Scorpio.

In this remarkable collection of tales of valour beyond measure, Swapnil Pandey lifts the curtain on some of the greatest Special Forces officers and introduces readers to Colonel Santosh Mahadik, Captain Tushar Mahajan, Brigadier Saurabh Singh Shekhawat, Subedar Major Mahendra Singh and others. Based on more than two hundred interviews with the friends and families of these men, conducted over one year and multiple trips to various Special Forces Units near the LoC and the LAC, Balidan seeks to resurrect these men from the shadows for the first time ever.

About The Author

Swapnil Pandey's extensively researched books are aimed at creating awareness about the work and lives of Indian Army personnel and their families. These include The Force Behind the Forces, Love Story of a Commando and Soldier's Girl. She is an alumnus of Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra, has worked with organizations like Wipro and HDFC, and taught at Lovely Professional University and the Army Public School. She writes a popular blog as well as articles for magazines and newspapers, and appears on national TV as a panelist. As a prominent voice from the army fraternity, she has been felicitated by organizations like ISRO. She can be contacted at teamgirlandworld@gmail.com, on Twitter at @swapy6, on Facebook at ‘Author Swapnil Pandey' and on Instagram at @swapnil_pandey_author.

6. Beyond the Story: 10-Year Record of BTS

Author: BTS and Myeongseok Kang

Publisher: Macmillan

Print Length: 544 pages

Release Date: 9 July 2023

Price: ₹1,690.00(price may vary)

Review

THE FIRST EVER OFFICIAL BOOK―

Published in celebration of BTS's 10th Anniversary, stories that go beyond what you already know about BTS, including unreleased photos, QR codes of videos, and all album information.

After taking their first step into the world on June 13, 2013, BTS will celebrate the 10th anniversary of their debut in June 2023. They have risen to the peak as an iconic global artist and during this meaningful time, they look back on their footsteps in the first official book. In doing so, BTS nurtures the power to build brighter days and they choose to take another step on a road that no one has gone before.

BTS shares personal, behind-the-scenes stories of their journey so far through interviews and more than three years of in-depth coverage by Myeongseok Kang, who has written about K-pop and other Korean pop culture in various media. Presented chronologically in seven chapters from before the debut of BTS to the present, their vivid voices and opinions harmonize to tell a sincere, lively, and deep story. In individual interviews that have been conducted without a camera or makeup, they illuminate their musical journey from multiple angles and discuss its significance.

In addition, portrait photos that show BTS as individuals and artists open the book, and throughout there are concept photos, tracklists of all previous albums, and over 330 QR codes. As digital artists, BTS has been communicating with the world through the internet and this book allows readers to immediately access trailers, music videos, and more online to have a rich understanding of all the key moments in BTS history. Complete with a timeline of all major milestones, BEYOND THE STORY is a remarkable archive―truly everything about BTS in one volume.

About The Author

BTS, also known as the Bangtan Boys, is a Grammy-nominated, South Korean boy band formed in 2010. The band consists of Jin, Suga, J-Hope, RM, Jimin, V, and Jungkook.