Jumpstart January: Six new works of fiction to start a new year of reading

Unknown City, Amitabha Bagchi

Arindam Chatterjee – whom we first met in Amitabha Bagchi’s novel Above Average – is now a nearly 50-year-old novelist and professor. He is committed to revisiting the relationships he had in his twenties during his years in America and after graduating from IIT – be it with history student Supriya, who wanted a companion to laugh with, not a partner demanding intellectual gratification; or with the activist Lisa, who sought an anchor, not a man unaware of her struggle with depression; or with the writer Razia, who wished to be desired, not summoned to mend a broken soul.

As Arindam looks back, he realises that the unknown city that’s the human heart felt unknowable to him because he was wearing the blinkers of his masculinity.

The Burnings, Himanjali Sankar

As inexplicable fires rage across the country, Shalini receives a frantic call from her first love, Akshar – a man she hasn’t seen in years. She rushes to his side, only to find him a shadow of his former self: broken, tormented by regret and wasting away in the decaying grandeur of his ancestral mansion in the hills. Soon after Shalini steps through its doors, she senses that something isn’t right. The lonely mansion’s older...

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