Author: Editor

New Book Announcement: “Fuji: A Mountain in the Making” by Andrew W Bernstein

Fuji: A Mountain in the Making, Andrew W Bernstein (Princeton, September 2025)

Mount Fuji is everywhere recognized as a wonder of nature and enduring symbol of Japan. Yet behind the picture-postcard image is a history filled with conflict and upheaval. Violent eruptions across the centuries wrought havoc and instilled fear. Long an object of worship, Fuji has been inhabited by deities that changed radically over time. It has been both a totem of national unity and a flashpoint for economic and political disputes. And while its soaring majesty has inspired countless works of literature and art, the foot of the mountain is home to military training grounds and polluting industries. Tracing the history of Fuji from its geological origins in the remote past to its recent inscription as a World Heritage Site, Andrew Bernstein explores these and other contradictions in the story of the mountain, inviting us to reflect on the relationships we share with the nonhuman world and one another.

Continue reading →

New Book Announcement: “Sing Me a Circle: Love, Loss and a Home in Time” by Samina Najmi

Sing Me a Circle: Love, Loss and a Home in Time, Samina Najmi (Trio House Press, October 2025)

“All points on a circle are always the same distance from the center.” These exquisite personal essays trace the orbit of Pakistani-American author Samina Najmi as she reflects on events, people, and places that shape her traditional childhood in Pakistan and continue to inspire her as she pursues her dreams of education and travel, enlarging her vision and experience of the world.

Continue reading →

New Book Announcement: “Freebourne” by Salman Shaheen

Freebourne, Salman Shaheen (Collective Ink, October 2025)

After learning of his wife’s affair with his best friend and business partner, divorced and unemployed MindTech entrepreneur Dr Harry Coulson arrives in the idyllic English town of Freebourne, looking to start a new life. But any hopes of quietly picking up the pieces of his broken world are shattered when he steps off the train to discover the body of a young woman lying in the snow. It’s almost as if she’d been left there for him to find.

Continue reading →

New Book Announcement: “Poverty in Modern Chinese Realism: From Russia, with Squalor” by Keru Cai

Poverty in Modern Chinese Realism: From Russia, with Squalor, Keru Cai (Oxford University Press, August 2025)

Keru Cai’s Poverty in Modern Chinese Realism examines the ways in which early 20th-century Chinese writers drew upon Russian works about the socially downtrodden to describe poverty, in a bid to enrich Chinese culture by creating a syncretic new realism. Modern Chinese realist writers turned to the topic of material poverty—peasants suffering from famine, exploited urban laborers, homeless orphans—to convey their sense of textual poverty and national backwardness.

Continue reading →

New Book Announcement: “How Singapore Beat the Odds: Insider Insights on Governance in the City-State” by WL Terence Ho

How Singapore Beat the Odds: Insider Insights on Governance in the City-State, WL Terence Ho (World Scientific Publishing, July 2025)

This book tells the inside story of how Singapore defied considerable odds to develop a dynamic economy and cohesive society in the 60 years since the city-state’s independence.
Through in-depth interviews with some of the nation’s most influential leaders—Abdullah Tarmugi, Chan Sek Keong, Cheong Koon Hean, Halimah Yacob, Peter Ho, Khaw Boon Wan, Lim Siong Guan, Ravi Menon, Seah Jiak Choo, Tan Yong Soon, Eddie Teo, Teo Ming Kian—How Singapore Beat the Odds explores various facets of public policy that shaped Singapore’s remarkable transformation.

Continue reading →

New book announcement: “Brown God’s Child” by Smitha Sehgal

Brown God’s Child, Smitha Sehgal (Erbacce Press, July 2025)

The poet in Brown God’s Child makes no bones about laying bare the cultural rooting of her identity in the very first poem of the volume. Be it through “burnt caramel”, the colour of her God’s skin or the sounds of her language—half Sanskrit and half Dravidian—poet Smitha Sehgal makes her entry as a formidable voice.

Continue reading →

New Book Announcement: “Yogis, Bhaktas & Sufis: Religious Traditions in Medieval North India, c. 1000-1450” by Subin Sabu

Yogis, Bhaktas & Sufis: Religious Traditions in Medieval North India, c. 1000-1450, Subin Sabu (Motilal Banarsidass Publishing House, June 2025)

Yoga has become highly popular worldwide and is generally received with enthusiasm in the western world. But it is mysterious in nature as, several interpretations have been offered by scholars from antiquity to recent times. Earlier, Yoga was practiced in the spiritual, philosophical and metaphysical sense in Indic traditions. In the medieval period, it was transformed by Hathayoga where physical exertions were applied to achieve the path of Samadhi. Also, it influenced two mainstream traditions prevalent in north India, Hinduism and Islam, in creating their respective mystical movements.

Continue reading →