Kabuko the Djinn

Author: Hamraz Ahsan

Publisher: Prakash, Rs 295          

It is the evocative story of a djinn who journeys through human life in search of occult knowledge. Wishing to study the dynamics of the human species, Kabuko enters the body of Ajee Shah, a boy born in post-Independence Punjab, Pakistan. As Kabuko loses himself to the trials and tribulations of living an ordinary yet intrinsically exceptional human life through Ajee, sex and the supernatural collide, entangling them both in a cataclysmic event that is to change their lives forever.

The Edge of Power

Author: Tuhin A Sinha

Publisher: Hachette, Rs 275

The gang-rape of Nirbhaya has jolted the nation but rape and violence against women are only symptomatic of a deeper malaise that ails the nation: The total collapse of governance under the weak Prime Minister, Devender Singh. A ray of hope emerges when ex-journalist Daivik Verma and Catherine Khan, a leading Bollywood film-star with a mysterious lineage, decide to challenge the existing system by floating a new political party. It’s a racy political thriller, with a powerful enquiry into the underbelly of Indian politics.

Sharmaji Padmashree

Author: Vithal Rajan

Publisher: Konark, Rs 350

Sharmaji Padmashree charts the life of a respectable middle-aged leader of an NGO in an ironic and witty manner. The protagonist, Vedavyas Sharma, is as much a victim of his circumstances and his profession, as a wilful perpetrator of shady deals in the name of development. The NGO manager is not such a dedicated ‘Gandhian’ leader of civil society as development organisations make him out to be. It’s his story.