The Monochrome Madonna by Kalpana Swaminathan Sitara said, with awful distinctness, I think I'm going to die.
And that's how I got stuck with the annual corpse.
Half an hour later I stood in an empty flat, alone with a stranger who was very recently, and very violently, dead.
Rushing to Sitara's aid, Lalli's niece Sita is distracted by Raphael's Sistine Madonna. Why is it monochrome. And what does it have to do with the body on the living-room floor.
Such questions are hardly relevant to the police in their hunt for the murderer. But Lalli is a detective who revels in curiosities, and she thinks otherwise.
A brisk thriller of deceit and intrigue, The Monochrome Madonna has Lalli at her most astute as she interprets the nuances of a murder without motive.
Oliver Twist leaves behind his gang of criminals for a better life; an open window is just what a fertile mind needs in Saki's .The Open Window; Satyajit Ray's Badan Babu has a brush with a Pterodactyl's egg; Rabindranath Tagore recollects boyhood days spent dreaming in an abandoned palanquin; and Sherlock Holmes sets off to solve the mystery of the engineer's thumb.
Featuring the works of such renowned authors as Charles Dickens, Louisa May Alcott, Premchand, Mark Twain and others, and a lively introduction by well-known children's author Paro Anand, The Puffin Book of Classic Stories for Boys is a matchless collection from the masters of world literature for boys of all ages.
The Puffin Book of Classic Stories for Girls by Paro Anand Pick up a dainty blue umbrella, skip around a secret garden; spend a day in the mountains, playing amongst the goats and birds; save a little pig from a dreadful fate. All this and more in these stories of magic, whimsy and humour.
Read the miraculous story of Pollyanna; explore a magical land with Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz; feel the warmth of love, and bond with the March sisters in Little Women; follow the travails of the mischievous Katy as she gets into scrapes at school; and watch out for Matilda's extraordinary tricks.
Featuring the works of such renowned authors as Lewis Carroll, Jane Austen, Roald Dahl, Ruskin Bond, Rabindranath Tagore and others, and a sparkling introduction by celebrated author Manjula Padmanabhan, The Puffin Book of Classic Stories for Girls is a matchless collection of stories from the masters of world literature for girls of all ages.
Tiger Hill by Sarita Mandanna Muthavva gazed at her daughter's face in the lamplight and felt a strange chill down her spine. She tightened the amulet on Devi's arm, trying to stay her sense of disquiet. Devi stared through the window into the clear, starlit night. Beneath the blanket, her fists were curled into little balls, her nails pressing into the skin. She thought again of the tiger wedding, and of the bridegroom. Only him, she repeated to herself.I will marry only Machu.
Coorg,1878. Devi is born on the day of the herons, and Muthavva knows that her daughter will be special. Beautiful and spirited, the little girl quickly becomes the object of adoration of her entire family. She befriends Devanna, a young boy whose mother has died in tragic circumstances, and they soon become inseparable. But the course of their lives changes forever when Devi meets Machu the tiger-killer, a hunter of great repute and a man of immense honour and pride.
Blind to Devanna's devotion, Devi vows that she will marry Machu some day. This creates a rift between her and Devanna who leaves the village to study medicine in the hope that when he comes back Devi will return his love. But a catastrophic twist of fate changes the destinies of all three, with consequences that affect generations to come.
An epic and extraordinary debut from an astonishing new talent.Daily Express
The Carrie Diaries by Candace Bushnell Before Sex and The City, Carrie Bradshaw was a small-town girl who knew she wanted more. She's ready for her real life to start, but first she must navigate her senior year of high school.Up until now , Carrie and her friends have been inseparable. then Sebastian Kudd comes into the picture , and a frien's betrayal makes her question everything.
With an unforgettable cast of characters, The Carrie Diaries is the story of how a regular girl learns to think for herself, and evolves into a sharp, insightful writer.Readers will learn about her family background, how she found her writing voice, and the indelible impression her early friendships and relationships left on her. Through adventure both audacious and poignant, we'll see what brings Carries to her beloved New York City, where her new life begins.
Flight of Pigeons by Ruskin Bond A Flight of Pigeons is Ruskin Bond's classic novella about the twists of fate, history and the human heart.
When Ruth Labadoor's father, a clerk in the British magistrate's office, is killed in an attack by sepoys, her family seek refuge with their trusted companion, Lala Ramjimal. From here they eventually hope to escape to their relatives in Bareilly. But their plans go awry when Javed Khan, a fiery Pathan opposed to the British, abducts Ruth and her mother and takes them to his haveli. To their surprise, it is not hate that impels him in this time of war, but an almost crippling passion for Ruth. It will be months before the fall of Delhi to British troops brings them freedom-from fear, bafflement and despair, not only their own but also Javed Khan's...
After Taste by Namita Devidayal Diwali 1984. Mummyji, the matriarch of a prosperous mithai business family, lies comatose in a Bombay hospital. Manipulative, determined, and seemingly invincible, Mummyji has held together her family through bribes of money, endless food, and adoration.
Surrounding her are her four children: the weak and ineffectual Rajan Papa who is desperately in need of cash; Sunny, the dynamic head of the business with an ugly marriage and a demanding mistress; Suman, the spoilt beauty of the family who is determined to get her hands on Mummyji's best jewels; and Saroj, Suman?s unlucky sister, who has always lived in her shadow. Each one of them wants Mummyji to die.
Aftertaste tells the story of one business family and its bitter dynamics: of resentful bahus, emasculated sons, controlling mothers-in-law, and rapacious siblings. For at the heart of family lies money, not love. Full of rare period details and insights into the world of Baniya families, Aftertaste is worldly, astute, and utterly riveting.
Grace Brookstein is the beautiful, young, and naive wife of financial superstar, Leonard Brookstein; a billionaire many times over with estates all over the world.
In 2009 the US stock market goes into a terrifying freefall. The economy is on the brink of collapse, and the public want someone to blame, their eyes and their rage directed firmly at Wall Street.
Oblivious and seemingly unscathed, Grace continues her charmed life, until the death of Lenny in a tragic sialing ?accident? forces her to face reality. His financial affairs unravel, revealing expensive crimes, and now Grace is in the frame.
Exposing a spiralling web of vicious lies and well-planned deceit, she soon puts her own life in danger.
Lessons in Forgetting by Anita Nair Lessons in Forgetting When we first see Meera, she is a carefully groomed corporate wife with a successful career as a writer of cookbooks. Then one day her husband fails to come home after a party and she becomes responsible not just for her children but her mother and grandmother, and the running of Lilac House, their rambling old family home in Bangalore. Enter Professor J.A. Krishnamurthy, or JAK, a renowned cyclone studies expert, on a very different trajectory in life. In a bedroom in his house lies his nineteen-year- old daughter Smriti, left comatose after a vicious attack on her while she was on holiday at a beachside town. A wall of silence and fear surrounds the incident?the grieving father is helped neither by the local police, nor by her boyfriend in his search for the truth. Through a series of coincidences, Meera and JAK find their lives turning and twisting together, with the unpredictability and sheer inevitability of a cyclone. And as the days pass, fresh beginnings appear where there seemed to be only endings. About the Author: Anita Nair is the best-selling author of three novels, The Better Man, Ladies Coupe and Mistress, and a collection of literary essays, Goodnight and God Bless. Mistress was longlisted for the 2008 Orange Prize in the UK. It was also a finalist for the 2007 PEN/Beyond Margins Award in the USA and for the LiBeraturpreis 2007 in Germany. Anita?s books have been translated into twenty-nine languages around the world. She lives in Bangalore.
Secrets & Lies by Jaishree Misra The Secret History meets Daddy's Girls as four old schoolfriends reunite after fifteen years in this sizzling blockbuster. You can't run away from your past! Anita, Zeba, Bubbles and Sam have a friendship that spans 20 years - a friendship born out of their years at a private girls' school in Delhi in the early Nineties. Beautiful, intelligent and secretive, they were the top clique; the girls that everyone wanted to impress - until the arrival of a newcomer to the school. 15-year-old Lily D'Souza is beautiful, gifted and acerbic and instantly threatens their superiority. Now, Anita, Sam and Bubbles live in London. Bubbles is the pampered but bored wife of a billionaire, Anita is a top journalist working for the BBC, whilst Sam tries hard to be a trophy wife for her corporate lawyer husband. Zeba remained in India, and now lives a life of unimaginable luxury as the world's reigning Bollywood queen.
Called back to India for a reunion by their beloved school principal Mrs Lamb, the women must confront a secret that has haunted their adult lives. Lily's body was found on the night of their school prom and, for twenty years, the open verdict has shielded the fact that they may have had a hand in her death. But as they reunite in Delhi to find out the truth about what really happened that night, will their friendship stand the strain? Or are some things better left unsaid!
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