Kevein Books and Reviews

We are back with another author interview. Today, with us, we have Sameera – the author of ‘Beyond What Meets the Eye’. In this interview, Sameera talks about her writing aspirations, and the route to getting her book published. Stay on...while we chat with her. What motivates you to write? Nothing gives me more fuel to write than my job. It's so easy to be passionate about being a doctor, and there's just so much to write about! No wonder there are so many TV shows on doctors. I also find injustice very unsettling and I hate the saying, “life isn't fair.” Life should be fair! And that's what motivates me to write. How do you handle the response of this book, especially from your friends and colleagues? I probably wouldn't have finished the book if it weren't for my friends and colleagues. The kind of support and encouragement I've gotten from all of them is overwhelming. For the most part, though, I've received so much praise from my...

Beyond What Meets the Eye by Sameera Kotta is a dark contemporary novel that revolves around the murky fates of orphans. At times you may feel that the world’s happiness feeds on others misfortunes. Here, we see Majnu as the protagonist. He is an orphan. He doesn’t know anything about his parents or ancestral history. He exists and he has to make some value off his existence. Like we mostly heard, he too felt victimized at the orphanage where he was being initially raised, but later he runs away with one of his friend Bunty, who dies owning to poor living standard. It was Bunty’s death that defines the fate of Majnu. Next we see Majnu is a medical student. He gets into a medical college and surprisingly good at studies. At college, he gets acquainted with a charming girl named Soumya, who hails from rich background. They go around but things do not work the way Majnu had planned. Out of nowhere, he purposes Soumya but to his chagrin she rejects him. Majnu takes an introspec...

‘Elephants in the Room’ is a debut novel of Suraj Laxminarayanan and it looks like pièce de résistance. The length of the novel exceeds 600 pages, but while reading you may delve deep into the plot and feel drawn to the intricacies of the storyline, thus after a point length hardly matters. You must have seen great Hollywood movies based on bank robbery, like The Italian Job and The Bank Job, etc. However, the prominent thing about these movies or novels is that their ending becomes predictable after a certain point. Well, with this book the kind of stance you get towards ending is not only nonplussed but also mesmerizing. In the bank robbery there are three gangs; one of them is more of terrorists. However, the author has given much weightage to one gang as they are the people who collide with the other two gangs. Initially the novel runs on their back. They are six in number, their usual business is pickpocketing or to carry some errands for money. They aren’t professiona...

VQE is an interesting memoire of a young Indian physician who struggled in the 1980’s turbulent England to have a better medical career in US. The narrator, young and 26-years old, completes his MBBS from Bangalore and plans to practice medicine in the USA. However, it is not easy to get into US for medical field; one has to go through a rigorous examination. During his time (1980) it was VQE which stands for Visa Qualifying Exam . For attempting VQE, he lands up in England as there it’s easy to get a temporary job to meet basic needs. He stayed there for over two years but those years were neither good nor monotonous. They were eventful and always kept him on tenterhooks, he was quite ambitious but uncertainty, insecurity, self-doubt and gloominess were never to leave him for various reasons. Life in a foreign country is not that easy as people generally reckon with. It is like the grass is always greener on the other side, but a closer look reveals something else. As ...

The book ‘The Mother I Never Knew’ by Sudha Murty consists of two novellas. The stories in the book are about familial relationship, highlighting their values in our contemporary life. These two stories take a poignant stance about relationship with mother. In both stories, the characters feel befuddled about the history of their mothers and go on a quest to reclaim them. Both stories are different yet seem converging to one point: love for mother. In the first story, we see Venkatesh living a comfortable life in Bangalore until he gets transferred to Hubli. There he stumbles upon his look-like and there onward things begin changing. He comes to know that look-alike is his half-brother, who lives in sheer destitution. Venkatesh, full of contrition, comes out of his comfort zone and begins a hunt for his past. Will he be able to reach out to his step mother and find out about their past? Second story is of Mukesh, an NRI – living in London. When he comes to Bangalore he...

Monkey on the Roof is a typical Ruskin Bond story, like about nothing but looks everything. The story features Ruskin Bond or say shows how he lives in Mussoorie at the cottage with an adopted family. Initially, he talks about animals and birds and insects that break into his cottage or onto his study table. He never harasses or chases them mercilessly; rather he drives them away from his window which opens to the mountain side, where he stands for hours watching the people on up road, school children and troublesome monkeys. He says that his roof is made of tin, old fashioned, where monkeys often make noise and if there are no monkeys, then its cats vs. rats at night. Ruskin finds obstacles to his sleep; he loves sleeping and admits that he is a lazy writer. If freedom was given, he would have his stories written by his assistants. In the story he also tells about his obsession for bed tea and breakfast. Ruskin puts strong emphasis on having good breakfast ever since his y...

Some books are so terrific with their cultural backdrop that more than the story you begin taking interest in local customs, people, tribes, rituals, and so on. On the similar lines, we have The Lioness of Morocco by Julia Drosten, a historical fiction. The story opens in 1835 when colonization was taking roots in European culture. Sibylla Spencer is a strong-headed woman of twenty three, unmarried, and daughter of Spencer Shipping Company’s owner. She has different opinions about the life she is leading in London of 1835. Somehow, she gets on with Benjamin Hopkins, a clerk in Spencer Company. They get married. When Spencer Company’s Moroccan trade agent dies, Sibylla along with her husband moves to Morocco to handle business accounts. Once they are into Mogador, a port city in Morocco, the priorities in their lives begin changing and the love between them evaporated without showing signs of wisps. It is clear that Sibylla is not happy with Benjamin, but still for the sake ...