Raise the festive spirit by tucking into a good book. We invited four writers to pick titles fit for Christmastime
Classics for a reason
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Kiran Manral, who has just released a murder mystery The Kitty Party Murder, suggests classics you can snuggle down with. The first is Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol. "It was my introduction to spooky writing without it being spooky. There's so much of social commentary in it — the overworked clerk and the crippled child — and pathos," she says. Her next pick is JRR Tolkien's The Father Christmas Letters, which is a collection of letters written and illustrated by the author for his children on Christmas. "It was a heartwarming read about the spirit of Christmas," she adds.
Dream on
For novelist and screenwriter K Hari Kumar, Christmastime brings back childhood memories of foggy days in Delhi, when school broke for winter vacation. That meant the librarian would issue him extra books. The one which stays with him till today is Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Kumar says, "I could relate to Charlie as my parents were also struggling to make ends meet during my growing up days. More than that, Charlie's story gave me hope that things will be fine one day if I put my heart and soul into what I love doing. The golden ticket was symbolic of our hopes and dreams."
Pause and ponder
Christmastime also calls for reflection. Nemat Sadat, author of The Carpet Weaver, picks a title that has been dubbed as the funniest book of the year, and tackles important issues — Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu. "[You] Dive into the life of Willis Wu, an Asian American man, who aspires for the best movie role available for someone like him: Kung Fu guy. This satirical novel exposes racial stereotyping and typecasting in Hollywood and shows the resilience of an outcast who can only be certain things. The surge of racist and xenophobic violence and discrimination towards those of Asian descent, especially since the pandemic started, makes Interior Chinatown all the more pertinent," he says.
Christmas cocktail
Anukrti Upadhyay, whose most recent novel Kintsugi was published this year, recommends two books. About the first, Newcomer by Keigo Hogashino, she says, "[It] is a tale of a recently transferred detective investigating a murder but also ending up joining broken families and mending sundered hearts; a mystery with compassion and emotional intelligence at its heart." Her second pick is The Nine Chambered Heart by Janice Pariat, "for the fluid beauty of its prose which hovers as close to poetry as can be and for the illusion and eternal mystery love and the beloved is."
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