John Grisham
The Reckoning | Hodder
“On a cold morning in October of 1946, Pete Banning awoke before sunrise and had no thoughts of going back to sleep.” So starts Grisham’s latest, a return to Clanton, Mississippi. Banning, a war hero, rich farmer, well-loved neighbour and family-man, is contemplating murder. His only, inexplicable reaction to his crime: “I've nothing to say.” If you like noir unfolding like sticky syrup, go for this.
Sharmila Sen
Not Quite Not White | Penguin Viking
“Even now, if I get too complacent about my sense of belonging—my ability to speak, dress, look, think like an American—I only need to smell bacon frying and I’m a newly arrived immigrant again.” Honesty pervades the book—arrival in the US aged 12, confronting the constant racial othering, hectic attempts to fit in and, finally, a deeper understanding of the mechanics of ‘Whiteness’, with a surprising conclusion.
J.K. Rowling
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald | Little, Brown
This is J.K. Rowling’s original screenplay for the second Fantastic Beasts film, which was released in India this week. Set in 1927, it’s a prequel to the Potter books in which Dumbledore and friends pursue the absconding dark wizard Grindelwald, while Nagini—hitherto known to us as Voldemort’s pet snake—is revealed to have been an Indonesian woman, oddly enough.
