21st Century Mumbai is a city of new money and soaring real estate, and property kingpin Dharmen Shah has grand plans for its future. His offer to buy and tear down a weathered tower block, making way for luxury apartments, will make each of its residents rich – if all agree to sell. But not everyone wants to leave; many of the residents have lived there for a lifetime, many of them are no longer young. As tensions rise among the once civil neighbours, one by one those who oppose …

A Chinese blog which was turned into a book and feature film has been published in English.
The Ai Mi blogs were first seen on the Chinese blogosphere where they became an instant hit with readers. The author, whose identity remains anonymous, won a traditional publishing contract and went on to sell a million copies of the book in China.
Published by Virago in the UK last month, Under the Hawthorn Tree tells the story of  Jingqiu who falls passionately in love with a boy nicknamed ‘Old Three’. Jingqiu is from a …

While researching a photoessay on the first decade of the 21st century, Tarsem discovers a photograph of Rubina, a former university friend now working as a campaigner. Unable to comfort his wife who has just recovered from her second miscarriage, and cope with the spectre of restructure and redundancy at his office, he contacts her. In reconnecting he faces the prejudices of his youth. Tarsem is Sikh, Rubina is Muslim. And the last ten years have seen them follow opposing paths shaded by events beyond their control. Encouraged by her, …

Curry enthusiasts will be delighted by TV Chef Anjum Anand’s latest book treat, I Love Curry. Amongst the 50 easy to follow  curry recipes are mouth watering images – enough to tempt anyone to have a go!
If you’re a fan of Madhu Jaffrey’s fine cookery books you will find this a joy! It has an equal blend of traditional homely dishes for you to try and perfect and some new innovations  – to please the experimental chef in you. True to her anyone-can-cook-a-curry style Anand makes it all, oh so simple …

The Asian Writer’s first collection Happy Birthday to Me : A collection of  contemporary Asian writing is due for release on October 30th 2010.
The collection features new writing by emerging writers on the theme of celebration, a selection of interviews from the last three years of The Asian Writer as well as an advice section for those looking to get published.
The launch event will take place during the Everybody’s Reading Festival Leicester Readers and Writers Day on Saturday 10th October 2010. To book your place at the event please email editor@theasianwriter.co.uk A …

From the first moment Anil Mayur sees Lina Merali he is mesmerised – there is only one thing he knows. He has to make her his. For Lina Merali, whom the blurb says is a devoted muslim daughter (but I would disagree with this) its not just a simple matter of whether she likes Anil. He opens up a whole new world, his love for art and architecture teach Lina that there is so much more to the world than she has known and seen. …

Arshia Sattar’s mail plopped into my Inbox on Jan 11, 2009,
Hi Suneetha
Happy New Year
we have a vacancy at sangam house from Jan 12 to Feb 8
Would you be able to come?
Arshia
Remember what Danny Boyle did on stage after taking his Oscar statuette into his hands? I did something similar! Arshia sounded like she was offering something quite routine, but it wasn’t anything mundane at all. This was a dream come true, literally.
To the uninitiated, the Sangam House Residency for Writers is the first-of-its-kind international writer’s residency in India and an …

by Suhel Ahmed
Transforming the desire to write to the actual act of writing has become something of a struggle lately. Every time I open up my notepad, it’s as if I’m standing at the bottom of a rock-face, staring up at the glorious summit, yet at that moment a vertiginous feeling courses through me and what I used to find natural becomes scarily alien.
So presented with the opportunity to spend a day at the Urban Writers Retreat, I instantly put my name forward, hoping that a change of scenery would …

ROBBIN YASSIN-KASSAB
the road from Damascus
published by Penguin June 2008
It is summer 2001 and Sami Traifi has escaped his fraying marriage and minimal job prospects to Damascus. In search of his roots and himself, he insteads find a forgotten uncle in a gloomy back room, and an ugly secret about his beloved father…
Returning to London, Sami finds even more to test him as his young wife Muntaha takes up wearing the hijab. Sami embarks on a wilfully ragged journey in the opposite direction – away from religion and those he loves …