📚Southasia Review of Books - January 2025

📚 29 January 2025

Hello reader,

Welcome to another edition of the Southasia Review of Books. 

How do you imagine Southasia hundreds of years from now? That is the theme of this year’s Himal Fiction Fest, which we are hosting from 9-20 June. 

Writers based in Southasia and beyond are welcome to send in their original, short speculative fiction that delves into the region’s possible futures. Please see our guidelines to send in your story for consideration here, and help us spread the word! 

On our latest Southasia Review of Books Podcast episode, I spoke to the writer Weena Pun about her new debut novel Kanchhi (Hachett India, September 2024) and the invisibility of women in Nepal’s society and literature. 

This heart-wrenching coming-of-age story follows Kanchhi and her mother negotiating life and societal pressures in rural Nepal. And as much as the book looks closely at women’s place in Nepali society, it also captures the realities of life in the hamlet Kanchhi is from, and the socio-political reasons for her disappearance. 

This episode is now available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Youtube.

📚Reviews from Himal’s pages this month

📚 This month in Southasian publishing

A dystopian reimagining of Nepal

After nearly a decade, the Nepali writer Samrat Upadhyay is back with Darkmotherland (January 2025); a sweeping story of love and political violence set in earthquake-ravaged region. In this vast dystopian reimagining of Nepal, Upadhyay ties together narratives of resistance and identity against a backdrop of natural disaster and state violence. 

Reading Perumal Murugan

This month marks the publication of Vaadivaasal: The Arena (Simon & Schuster India, January 2025) by the International Booker Prize-nominated author Perumal Murugan and the critically acclaimed graphic novelist Appupen. This is a graphic adaptation of the Tamil modern literary classic by C S Chellappa. The novella, first published in 1949, describes the events of an afternoon in Periyapatti, a village in southern Tamil Nadu, where a jallikattu contest involving the traditional bull-taming sport takes place. 

Also out this month is Perumal Murugan’s collection of essays, Students Etched in Memory, translated by V Iswarya (Penguin India, January 2025).  In these personal essays, Murugan offers an intimate look into the lives of college students from small-town Tamil Nadu and his work as teacher and mentor. 

Coming of age in Berlin

The Afghan-German poet Aria Aber’s debut novel Good Girl (Bloomsbury, January 2025) finds a daughter of Afghan refugees sidestepping disapproval and racism as she dives into Berlin’s artistic underground. 

Drawn to philosophy, photography, sex and drugs the protagonist Nila has spent her adolescence navigating her family’s expectations while searching for her voice as a young woman and artist. Then in the haze of Berlin’s nightlife, she finds herself caught in between political, racial and socioeconomic forces, her desire for freedom and her cultural identity as an Afghan woman.

[From Himal’s archives, read a series of longform reports by Taran N Khan – The Making of a Refugee – where we take a deep dive into the lives of artists, writers, musicians and other Afghan refugees and migrants living in Germany.]

The life and death of Gauri Lankesh

In September 2017, the journalist and activist Gauri Lankesh was assassinated outside her home in Bangalore. Her murder and its aftermath continue to make headlines even years later, but those responsible are yet to be brought to book.

In I Am on the Hit List: Murder and Myth-making in South India (Context, January 2025), Rollo Romig follows the trail of Gauri Lankesh’s life and death and the investigation that followed, to unravel a world of political extremists, fearless writers, shadowy religious groups and organised crime in India.

Until next time, happy reading! 

Shwetha Srikanthan
Associate Editor, Himal Southasian

Thank you for reading the Southasia Review of Books. Are there any authors or new books you would like to see featured? We would love to hear from you. Please write to me at shwethas@himalmag.com.