Kevein Books and Reviews

Old Man at the Bridge by Ernest Hemingway is a short story staged against war-torn Spain. The time is of Spanish Civil War, around Second World War. Like in many other short stories of Hemingway, death during war time is prominent in this story as well. A soldier passes by an old bridge to go back to a village to see whether the enemy army is following his army or not? The Spanish Civil War was fought between Fascist and Republican. The soldier is from Republican Party. While crossing the bridge, the soldier notices many people crossing the bridge, in fact fleeing the village because of ensuing war. He spots an old man sitting by the road on the bridge. When the soldier comes back, he finds the old man still there, whereas all people have left the place. The old man is lonely, dusty, and tired. Seeing the miserable state of the old man, the soldier initiates conversation with him. The old man says that he is the last man to leave his village because he cares for his animals...

Ozymandias is a short poem of fourteen lines written by Percy Bysshe Shelley. The concurrent theme of the poem is that nothing remains intact and same forever in this world. Even the brightest of metal, one day decays with passage of time. The throne name of Egyptian King Ramesses is Ozymandias. It was his dearest desire to preserve himself forever by building a huge statue that he thought would never tumble down. Stanza 1: I met a traveller from an antique land Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand, Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown, And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command, Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed; Summary: The poet narrates the poem through the eyes of a traveler who seems to have come back from a remote and far-away land, referring to Egypt. The traveler r...

Six, Five by Binary is a well-placed novel with cross-cultural setting. It’s a college campus story where two lead characters Violet and Victor play the most part in it. If you have read the blurb, you must have got the hunch that it is partially sketched on Sherlock Holmes lines i.e. a series of spectacular detective work. It means stories that require sleuths, detectives, and investigation, riddles littered here and there, and enigma along the roads. Let’s focus back on the novel, there we have Violet and Victor, the students of E.G. Millennia. Violet is carefree and chirpy girl pursuing psychology, on the other hand, Victor is a bit serious and studious kind of guy. As the novel chugs ahead, Violet, the narrator, tells basic things about her, Victor, college campus, surrounding, and so on. The most important thing to understand is Zenith – it’s their college campus online newspaper. It’s Victor who manages stories for ‘Unveil Squad’ by investigating cases, mostly from th...

A senior journalist and columnist Sagarika Ghose’s ‘Why I am a Liberal’ is related with individual freedom. She focuses on the contemporary social, political and economic issues in India, especially those which are imposed on individual freedoms by the Big Government(s). The democratic values; liberty, equality and justice have  been continually trembling because the Big Governments are imposing the number of new norms in the name of so-called ‘nationalism’ which leads to destabilise and damage the social fabric of India. When Ghose defines the basic term ‘liberal’ she comprehends all the contextual references in history, even she understands the limitations of the term then why she is using this term as main theme of the book? Because she thinks that word ‘liberal’ is central to all social, economic and political debates at this moment. She believes that ‘the Hindutva nationalist government born in 2014 has shattered the fragile yet prevailing liberal consensus that had ...

‘Sadhana Who Stalked Her?’ by Spandana Chakradhar is sure shot an influential thriller. Well, after reading and having grasp over the story, you can decide whether it was a psychological or suspense or some other mystery. But before we get into the story, we need to understand that the title of the story says a lot about the book, such as the name of the lead character and about a dangerous crime called stalking. This is a story of Sadhana – the protagonist. She is beautiful, elegant, sober, and possesses a few more extra qualities which are rare to find in all women. Since she is beautiful and charming, men queue up for her, quite obviously. So, at this point if you think a beautiful girl is always at the vantage point, well you need to read this novel quite carefully. The story starts at Hyderabad, there Sadhana is struggling in life with her mother Laxmi, and the main reason is that they are financially suppressed. And over it, Laxmi wants her to get married as soon...

We are back with another author interview. Today, with us, we have Nimish Tanna – the author of ‘Divyastra’. In this interview, Nimish talks about his writing aspirations, and the route to getting his book published. Stay on...while we chat with him. What motivates you to write? I think the biggest factor of motivation is universal for all storytellers and that is, a story inside you that HAS to be told. It’s like a therapy, a ball of energy bursting inside you and there is no other outlet for it, except telling it. Whether you speak it out, pen it down, sing it, dance it, paint it, act it; the form really doesn’t matter. What really matters is, you live it. Once the story has consumed you completely, you will not feel relieved until you have told it. I guess that is why storytellers are willing to go to any extent in order to express themselves.   How do you handle the response to this book, especially from your friends and colleagues? When my first book released...

Fantasy fictions are charming than other genres as there you find normal things done in different ways. For instance, the background is, most of the time, is not contemporary – it is mix of myth and history and some other innovative landscapes. Next, the host of characters, unlike human, you are sure to meet demons, monsters, animals, and apes for that matter. If you have read ‘Hobbit’ and ‘The Lord of the Rings’ series, we hope you understand what we are alluding to. Coming to this novel, which stretches up to 288 pages, we felt while reading as we are with this novel and its characters and in the setting since ages. The experience was dreamlike. And when the novel ended, you feel good for the experience, and sad as you have to move on. But the hope of getting a possible sequel keeps you alive. This novel possesses a very fantastic yet intriguing question – which is mightier to rule a kingdom, ink and intellectual or steel and strength? The protagonist, female Kautilya, so...