Mystery Sunday:

1. Shalimar the Clown by Salman Rushdie, paperback, published by Vintage, pp 416, Rs 480

2. Cat O’ Nine Tales by Jeffrey Archer, paperback, published by MacMillan, pp 200, Rs 480

3. 26a by Diana Evans, paperback, published by Vintage, pp 240, Rs 650

4. The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova, paperback, published by Time Warner books, pp 720, Rs 475

5. Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World by Mark Kurlansky, paperback, published by Vintage, pp 304, Rs 750

What the books are about

Shalimar the Clown:

The place is Los Angeles, 1991. Maximilian Ophuls is knifed to death on the doorstep of his illegitimate daughter India, slaughtered by his Kashmiri driver, a mysterious figure who calls himself Shalimar, the Clown.

The dead man is a World War II Resistance hero, a man of formidable intellectual ability and much erotic appeal, a former United States ambassador to India, and subsequently America’s counter-terrorism chief. The murder looks at first like a political assassination but turns out to be passionately personal. This is the story of Max, his killer,

and his daughter — and of a fourth character, the woman who links them all. The story of

a deep love gone fatally wrong, destroyed

by a shallow affair, it is an epic narrative that moves from California to France, England, and above all, Kashmir: a ruined paradise, not so much lost as smashed.

Cat O’ Nine Tales:

Cat O’ Nine Tales is the sixth collection of irresistible short stories from the master storyteller illustrated by the internationally acclaimed artist, Ronald Searle, creator of Molesworth. These 12 yarns are so satisfying because they are ingeniously plotted, include richly drawn characters and have deliciously unexpected conclusions. They feature the mad, the bad and the dangerous to know, as well as some more poignant and telling characters. Many of these stories came to Archer while he was incarcerated for two years in five different prisons, and so they have a prison theme. Others were inspired since he was released, but all in all they confirm his position as one of the best storytellers alive today. ‘Stylish, witty and constantly entertaining... Jeffrey Archer has a natural aptitude for short stories.’ — The Times

26a:

Identical twins, Georgia and Bessi, live in the loft of 26 Waifer Avenue. It is a place of beanbags, nectarines and secrets, and visitors must always knock before entering. Down below there is not such harmony. Their Nigerian mother puts cayenne pepper on her Yorkshire pudding and has mysterious ways of dealing with homesickness; their father angrily roams the streets of Neasden, prey to the demons of his Derbyshire upbringing. Forced to create their own identities, the Hunter children build a separate universe. Older sister Bel discovers sex, high heels and organic hairdressing, the twins prepare for a flapjack empire, while baby sister Kemy learns to moonwalk for Michael Jackson. It is when reality comes knocking that the fantasies of childhood start to give way. How will Georgia and Bessi cope in a world of separateness and solitude, and which of them will be stronger? Wickedly funny and devastatingly moving, 26A is an extraordinary first novel. Part fairytale, part nightmare, it moves from the mundane to the magical, the particular to the universal with exceptional flair and imagination. It is for anyone who has had a childhood, and anyone who knows what it is to lose one. It is a winner of the 2005 Orange New Writers Prize. Diana Evans won the 2006 British Books Awards Writer of the Year.

The Historian:

Some stories can be told again in endlessly different ways. Elizabeth Kostova’s The Historian combines a search for the historical Dracula with a profound sense that Stoker got some things right — that the late Mediaeval tyrant kills among us yet, undead and dangerous. From Stoker, she also takes a sense that the supernatural seems more real when embedded in documentary evidence. Three generations search for Dracula’s resting place, and their stories are nested within each other, so that we know that at least two quests ended badly. Kostova rations her thrills very carefully so that we jump out of our chair at quite slight surprises, especially when we have come to expect buckets of blood and loud bangs. She also has a profound and well-communicated sense of place and period, so that the book is equally at home in 1930s Rumania, Cold War Budapest and 1970s Oxford. Kostova is particularly good on the sights and sounds of remote country places and the taste of real peasant food — this sensuous realism does not always go with her other skill, the creation of imagined documents and folksongs that feel as real and true as what might be actual.

Information courtesy: UNITED BOOKS, Ganesh Man Singh building, Northfield Cafe ph: 4229 512; Bluebird stores in Lazimpat & Tripureshwore, ph: 4245 726; Momo’s and More, Old Baneshwor; Himalayan Java; Saturday Cafe, Bouddha; Namaste Supermarket in Pulchowk, ph: 5525 017