New Book Announcement: “When the Kurinji Blooms” by Rajam Krishnan

When the Kurinji Blooms, Rajam Krishnan, Uma Narayanan (trans), Prema Seetharam (trens) (Orient BlackSwan, September 2023)
When the Kurinji Blooms, Rajam Krishnan, Uma Narayanan (trans), Prema Seetharam (trans) (Orient BlackSwan, September 2023)

Kurinjithen, literally honey of the kurinji flower, is a timeless poem in prose that transports you to the lush Nilgiris where this beautiful blue flower grows wild and to the land of the Badagas who inhabit these hills. It is also Rajam Krishnan’s eulogy to a vanished world and way of life. Once in twelve years when the kurinji blooms in these hills, bees store the honey of the kurinji in combs in rock crevices and on branches of trees. When the Kurinji Blooms narrates the family saga of three generations of Badagas who have for long remained untouched by modernity. Then, as the winds of commerce and change invade their tranquil and sheltered lives, innocence and harmony are replaced by conflict and tragedy that herald new beginnings.

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“Terminus: Westward Expansion, China, and the End of American Empire” by Stuart Rollo

Among the current surfeit of books that claim to explain China, Terminus: Westward Expansion, China, and the End of American Empire, a new treatise on Sino-American relations, distinguishes itself by placing the current bilateral tensions in the context of almost two and half centuries of American expansion (“imperial expansion” as author Stuart Rollo puts it) which, it argues, had China as its target and which have reached its limit (hence “Terminus”). 

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Opera in brief: Mendelssohn’s “Elijah” at Hong Kong City Hall

Although originally conceived as an oratorio, Felix Mendelssohn’s Elijah (1846) has in recent years been staged, on occasion at any rate, as an opera. Last night’s semi-staged performance by The Bel Canto Singers showed why: whatever the libretto may lack in theatricality is made up for by the drama in the music, sung by operatically-sized cast of a dozen named characters and a large chorus.

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New Book Announcement: “Electrifying Indonesia: Technology and Social Justice in National Development” by Anto Mohsin

Electrifying Indonesia: Technology and Social Justice in National Development, Anto Mohsin (University of Wisconsin Press, December 2023)
Electrifying Indonesia: Technology and Social Justice in National Development, Anto Mohsin (University of Wisconsin Press, December 2023)

Electrifying Indonesia tells the story of the entanglement of politics and technology during Indonesia’s rapid post-World War II development. As a central part of its nation-building project, the Indonesian state sought to supply electricity to the entire country, bringing transformative socioeconomic benefits across its heterogeneous territories and populations.

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“Rome and Persia: The Seven Hundred Year Rivalry” by Adrian Goldsworthy

Narrative history at its best, Adrian Goldsworthy’s Rome and Persia is informative, readable, carefully sourced, and cautious in its judgments about events that occurred between 90 BCE and the 600s CE in the Mediterranean world, north Africa, and western Asia. It is also instructive about imperial rivalries, geopolitical competition, and human nature across the ages—including our present one. 

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New Book Announcement: “The Man Who Walked Backwards and Other Stories” by S Ramakrishnan

The Man Who Walked Backwards and Other Stories, S Ramakrishnan, Prabha Sridevan (trans), (Orient BlackSwan, July 2023)
The Man Who Walked Backwards and Other Stories, S Ramakrishnan, Prabha Sridevan (trans), (Orient BlackSwan, July 2023)

The Man Who Walked Backwards and Other Stories is an anthology of eighteen short stories by S Ramakrishnan, the popular and critically acclaimed master of modern Tamil writing. The stories in this collection are a celebration of eccentricities: they feature characters who defy conventions, and who listen to their inner selves instead of conforming to familial and societal norms.

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“Okinawa” by Susumu Higa

In the opening chapter of Susumu Higa’s manga, Okinawa, a group of Japanese soldiers land on a Ryukyuan island to prepare for World War II’s Battle of Okinawa. A child asks her principal whether the soldiers will occupy their island forever. “Until they know all of us are safe,” he replies. His words are an ominous beginning for readers who know anything about the next seventy years of Okinawa’s history.

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