A frustratingly inherent constraint of reviewing multiple books within a very tight word-limit is that one can only touch upon each volume very briefly, but it is better to flag them proudly than to leave them fluttering in the distance invisibly. In Ranjit Hoskote’s volume, the author “becomes the storyteller of a turbulent epoch. We meet Ovid and Ghalib, poets in exile or in eclipse.” I have earlier reviewed this book in these pages (June 2, 2014), so I will take up the others.