Kevein Books and Reviews

We are delighted to welcome a very promising novelist Amar Singh for a brief Q & A session at our website about his recent novel ‘The Third’ . In this Q & A session, he will be talking about his writing aspirations, inclination towards contemporary self-aware fiction, and the route to getting his novel published. Stay on...while we chat with him. Would you mind telling a bit about your novel – maybe in two or three sentences? ‘The Third’ is a novella about an intelligent young man who sees for himself that he is conditioned, and that his life is full of conflicts, fear and sorrow. He is identified with his mind and tries his best to fight it out with life to finally realize that the root cause of all pains was his identity. Only when the mind gives up in response to unbearable sorrow, loneliness and visions inexplicable by the mind that he realizes his true self. What inspired you to write this novel? Any tales... I have always appreciated the scriptures for th...

The Girl with Golden Thoughts by Ashutosh Jogia is a fantastic Hindi novel of optimum length. The story revolves around a girl called Nirjara. Other characters think that she is the same girl whom they assume ‘The Girl with Golden Thoughts’ in some magazine. Well, the lead character Vyom and Alisha first investigate that and then send their shy friend Bhaskar in the hope of forming a love story with Nirjara. How it all works up, fills up the rest of the narration. There are a lot of twists and turns in the story and I really liked the political drama and the teachings that come for the society. It is mixture of a few themes into one, such as romance, friendship, politics, spy, and so on. Though it is written in Hindi and I admit that I do not read many Hindi or other language novels, but this one had a different charm on me. I was swayed by its charm that since very first page I decided that I will complete the book, no matter what may come. But slightly I got confused w...

I am in Love with a Shudh Desi Firangi by Dipnanda Bhaduri Roy is a captivating romance novel with doses of religious spirituality. The novel is built around the lead character Kattyayani (Katty) Chatterjee. She is simple, sober, academically brilliant, and to some extent the pride flag bearer of her family. However, her only mistake was that she fell in love with a wrong guy…yes…you heard right? Just on the day of her examination, she gets the breakup news. Her six-year-long boyfriend Arnab breaks with her. The reasons are her coldness and lackluster in overall grooming and so on. Anyway, post the breakup, like many other girls, she too felt depressed and got a little diffident on the topic of love. The initial part of the novel deals with tension and depression, a kind of melancholy lingers. Surprisingly, there was no weeping and wailing from the girl’s side. With family history, cultural ethos and beliefs, and Calcutta as a backdrop, the novel chugs ahead silently. It’s ...

The Third by Amar Singh is a thought-provoking work of fiction, with strong doses of philosophy and spirituality. At large, through the concerning voice of Aryan, the book delves into the deep-rooted, rusted patterns of our society. The Indian society gives an impression of a united façade; however, deep within it is fragmented and programmed in not-so-rational way. As an individual, either one conforms to the protocols and patterns of the society, or turn out to be an outlaw. But both circumstances assure no substantial peace. Aryan is the protagonist of the novel. He is seen into a pattern called life. The novel covers his major live events until he supposedly dies at the age of 45. But the question is, was he happy and a well fit in that? May be or may be not? Aryan is a special child – he has unspoken challenges and questions for the society. Paradoxically, is the society in which he lives and falls back capable of clarifying his doubts? Read on the book to know his tus...

A Week with Enya by Amar B. Singh is a delicate collection of poems concerning the voice of a father and a life explorer. The collection offers over 20 poems, mostly written in simple, lucid, and prosaic form. Each poem is a gem in the collection and makes us cogitate about us being human and our existence. Through contemporary poems, it has become a saga profound to challenge the perceptions that gripped our beliefs and allied existence. This collection is quite modern in its semblance, as we run through the poems and prose, we find the voice of the poet shuttling between his desires and his life at working ambiences. There is everything that it’s being a modern poetry collection, for instance, in the poem ‘The Pursuit of Intelligence’ the poet mocks the smart people for lusting after smart technologies like AI, ML, etc., but the same smart people are unable to communicate with an innocent, subtly autistic, child. Isn’t ironical? The way Amar Singh weaves the voice and ...

I am familiar with J Peters, I had read his first novel (probably first in the school/college series) Small Fingernails . That novel was more on teenage madness along with a love story and mental health instability. It was good – how he chased Dorothea and broke with her was a little embarrassing and uncomfortable for me. But overall, I enjoyed the author’s conviction and honesty in narration. His second novel University on Watch , presumably a sequel to Small Fingernails is a terrific knock on the malleable hearts and adamant minds. The protagonist, written in biographical way, J Peters, this time posing as SUS struggles to get admission in English Graduate School at New London College. The only sad thing about the narration was author’s affinity for trouble in the form of drugs and suicidal attempts. This frustrates many close to him, including his parents; subsequently, he grows barren and secluded. But still, his will to overcome the mental health issues seem taking corn...

As the novel opens up, we see the female protagonist, Neera Singh, is spoilt for job choices, but before she could decide on her pick, she gets a call from a strange recruiting agency offering her a position irrelevant to her excellent academic achievement. After many rounds of discussions on this new job offer, she accepted to work overseas as an undercover agent wearing a mask of an Indian Foreign Services Officer. Her first posting was in Hong Kong, and while she was working to unearth a racket involved in shipping fake Indian currency, she gets to know Dr. Prakash Rao, working for the Indian Intelligence Agency as Head of Hong Kong operations. Soon both, Neera and Prakash had to work together, first to get the culprits who were pumping the fake currency into the country and then to investigate the truth behind the deaths of three agents, which were confirmed as ill-fated casualties. As you delve deep into the storyline, things become clear and follow a set line for solvin...