Kevein Books and Reviews

Happimess by Biswajit Banerji is a collection of 13 extraordinary short stories about ordinary people. The book is a short read; however, at times the wit and humour is so deep routed that the underlying meaning may take time to be grasped in a right manner. Just two pages… and I got that hunch that the language of the book is of international standard. The author has used a good cast of vocabulary. Someone with very good command over the English language may go crazy with these stories. Terrifically placed with an immaculate dose of wit, hilarious moments, and surprising twists. As I delved deep in the book, I could feel that the stories were neither rocket science nor tumultuously imagined, they were simple, like everyday occurrence. The author has great observation powers to weave a book on simple idiosyncrasies and peculiarities of people. I am sure there must be some people around his life – some of the stories sound spiraling off his experiences. The stories sound connected b...

The Quantum Reality of Life by Saravanan Marimuthu is part research work, part philosophy. The book takes stance on reality and existence and how they are interrelated by studying science, religion, and spirituality. The book is easy to read but hard to grasp the real meaning of the content. For example, this excerpt from the book sounds simple but its underlying meaning is far beyond the comprehension of a layman. Here it goes: "As per Quantum Mechanics, Reality is recognized only through an observer. But does this define that without an observer, there is no reality? Is reality subjective? If we postulate that an observer is only a witness to the reality and nothing more, why would the late observer be bothered about reality existing, where he does not exist? So either the existence of reality is relative to the existence of an observer or not, it is confident to say that reality only matters to the observer when they exist to experience it." If I read the above content t...

Hang On: A Second Wind by Eshwarmurthy G Pillai is a very relevant and timely novel for the debt-ridden farmers of Maharashtra, who often thought of committing suicide to get rid of their problems. The novel is staged against the dry region of Maharashtra which receives unpredictable rainfall that causes worry for the farmers. As farmers of that region commits highest number of suicides every year due to bad dept from loans and pervading poverty. This novel concerns the voice of millions of farmers across that region through the lead character Subodh Kadale. Like many other farmers who are poor and unable to pay the loan taken from banks, Subodh Kadale too loses his house to bank and as a last resort thinks of committing suicide. As he approaches for that final step on a railway track, he is accosted by a small school girl named Vanhi. She calls him Aaba – which roughly means father. He is taken aback and listens to her story as how her father committed suicide on the railway track a...

The Script of Life by Abhi is a gradually moving light romance novel set in India. Running up to 170 pages, this novel is suitable for naïve romance readers to finish in one go. The novel features the story of two people hailing from diverse background – one is a sort of social media blogger – and the second one is an aspiring actor with theatre experience. The novel doesn’t feature larger-than-life characters; rather they are simple and aspiring as you and me. They are decent and relatable. It is the small things that they do in their lives with full gusto that matters – the author has brilliantly captured the streak of a commoner with good party spirit. Probably, due to this aspect, the novel at all junctures sound contemporary and relatable. A close look reveals that the novel holds two narratives, as there are two protagonists Charumathi and Kabir. The first half of the novel plays around this young and chirpy girl named Charumathi. And I felt she drives the plot till end. She jo...

Bare Chest on Everest by Jay Vikram is a thrilling novel staged against the beautiful backdrop of Nepal. The story features three bold and badass men: Jay, Tobias, and Chris. Among all Jay is the youngest one, thus, he is also a sort of protagonist in the novel. But the storyline seems equally divided among these three men. They hail from different countries, Jay from India. Chris is a photographer, and Tobias and Jay are sort of consultants roaming the world. One odd day Jay gets a message from Tobias about climbing the base camp of Everest. The protagonist reaches Cat Man Do (Kathmandu) to join the team. When these three men meet in Kathmandu, the narration and pace of the novel is charged with amazing momentum. Ironically, the trip is not simple as they thought initially. Difficulties begin pouring as soon as they come out of the Kathmandu airport. The novel is divided into two layers – first is how they struggle at each step while climbing up – second is the mystical element that...

The Mirror by Neerav Harsh is a general fictional novel with deep psychological layers. The story features a man who one odd day begins seeing his image in the mirror at his home. The image in the mirror is a sort of his doppelganger. The man in the mirror looks 10 years elder to him. At first, the nameless protagonist is shocked to such an illusionary figure but with time he accepts the bitter reality. Readers may get confused here onwards; they may take time to settle with such unique concept of double existence. But surprisingly, the man is visible only to the protagonist, not to his son or wife Lina or his mother. To decipher the real reason behind the mirror image, one need to get into the undercurrent theme of the novel that deals with false pretenses and some past guilt that disturb a man all his life. On similar lines, with incoherent narration, is built the scaffold of this novel. The novel is plotless but it’s so intriguing in its own layers that one finds that at one poi...

Hiraeth by Ritika Kanodia is a fictional novel featuring a 24-year-old young girl named Raya. The novel is poignant in exploring the nostalgic side of people who run away from home to a different land owing to some reasons. In this novel, Raya moves out to Australia as an MBA student. However, much to her shock, she finds herself in an emotional turmoil on a foreign land. As expected, there comes a bundle of problems like difficulty in connecting with locals, aloofness, loneliness, lack of true friends, and most importantly she has to do all her chores by herself without the logistic or moral support of her parents. Raya basically moves out of home, as back in India there were some people forcing her for marriage and wants to keep her tied under their nose. She rebelled. She with the help of someone close from her family runs away to Australia on a substantial and plausible reason of higher studies. It is evident that the lead character is aloof and facing the challenges of lonelin...

Wales High School by J. Peters is the second book in the ‘Wales School’ series featuring the school life of a popular lead character Jacques. Those who have read Wales Middle School will find this book smooth and interconnected. The story picks up where it was left during the middle school years. The year is 2000 and Jacques is no more the president of student council – he is starting fresh as a High School student. Whatever happened in the middle school, Jacques is least bothered about that. During that time, he rose and fell. But this time, once again he bows to be as promising as he was in the middle years. Like the previous book, this too starts with short chapters that portray a gamut of school experience of Jacques. For instance, initially Jacques excels in biology class but he longs for honors in Chemistry, and his participation in debates, grabbing two trophies bring him sarcastic remarks and hate from his fellow mates. Even in high school years, Jacques seems enjoying his ...

The Blissful Inferno by Abhishek Pathak is an action and adventure novel set in hell, where the lead protagonist Kushagra finds himself entangled among some bigger and darker demons. This novel is a fine blend of little mystery, some fantasy, and absolute thrill. This is one of the first novels that I came across in my life which is back staged against Hell. The word Hell itself is a dread to think of for humans. Well, this novel takes a leap of imagination and presents a truly incredible and light and funny-tone story of one normal guy who reaches hell only to find himself entangled between demons that rule the hell. The main character in the novel is Kushagra. On earth, he was married but not happy with his wife as she was in love with her ex-boyfriend Abhishek. Kushagra knows everything but at the same time expects his wife Keerti to be faithful toward him…things did not work. He gets tensed…his car falls in the river. He is missing…but he is here in the hell. Before he could re...

Wales Middle School by J. Peters is a fascinating teen & young novel about the protagonist Jacques. The novel runs up to 60 pages with very short chapters – it covers the school journey of one boy who rises from being simple to the president of school council. The novel aptly deals with preteen and preadolescent days of a growing school boy. The timeline of the story runs between 1996 to 1999. During this time Jacques attends the middle school. The novel captures his journey in an order of events. In the start, we see how he is a gentle-mannered good school boy, but deep inside him runs a ruthless urge to play with the powers he possibly could get at this malleable phase of life. The novel starts with regular school events happening in Jacques life such as school bus number 17, his friendship with Alec and Brian, playing prank calls, food rotting in the locker, and so on. As the story chugs ahead, we see the other side of a simple-looking school boy…that is more of his hidden h...