With stories from places like Kerala, Nagaland, Sikkim, Rajasthan and more, Kanikonna and Other Stories is a collection of folktales from different states of India and Bhutan. Tales from different cultures that will take you on a joyride of laughter and learning.
‘I, Kalari Kovilakom, grande maison, guardian of memories—births, deaths, marriages, hopes, dreams, laughter and tears—having gone through so many lifetimes, now stand witness to the march of time and the waywardness of fortune. I, with my louvered windows.’ This is the chronicle of a grand old mansion bursting to tell its tale! The House That Dhathri Built and Other Stories will lead you deep into the heart of a Malabar palace, a sequestered world behind high walls where life is veering towards an unlit crossroad, strange and unfamiliar. Throughout this telling, the life of Dhathri, Ranee of the ‘little kingdom’, appears and reappears like a skein of silken thread that draws the narrative together into a moving saga of the times. Sweeping from British-occupied Malabar—through the war years and Independence up until the ‘sea of red’ causes the feudal system to break up and implode—can Kalari Kovilakom, the house that Dhathri built, survive the stormy buffets of social change? Or will it be condemned to die an ignoble death at the hands of a common pickaxe?
As they seek to explore evolving and conflicting ideas of nationhood and modernity, India's writers have often chosen forests as the dramatic setting for stories of national identity. India's Forests, Real and Imagined explores how these settings have been integral to India's sense of national consciousness. Alan Johnson demonstrates that modern writers have drawn on older Indian literary traditions of the forest as a place of exile, trial and danger to shape new ideas of India as a modern nation. The book casts new light on a wide range of modern writers, from Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay – widely regarded as the first Indian novelist – to contemporary authors such as Amitav Ghosh, Arundhati Roy, and Salman Rushdie as well as local attitudes to nationhood and the environment across the country.
Don Quixote, or The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha, is the story of a nameless man who seeks to revive chivalry, rights the world's wrongs and bring justice. He uses the name Don Quixote and recruits a squire named Sancho Panza who acts as a foil to his imagined knighthood. Don Quixote has often been called one of the greatest novels ever written. Xist Publishing is a digital-first publisher. Xist Publishing creates books for the touchscreen generation and is dedicated to helping everyone develop a lifetime love of reading, no matter what form it takes
Panchatantra (Five Chapters) in Sanskrit is perhaps the oldest collection of stories in the world and has been translated into more than 50 languages. Each of its 'Chapters' contains a string of stories one emerging from the other, with each designed to l
Written after a battle fought in approximately 1475, this poem may be the oldest work of literature from Siam. It features the earliest and most detailed description of a Siamese army, the most elaborate eulogy of an early Thai monarch, and a fascinating discussion of the concept of loyalty. Scenes of personal treachery, heroism, combat, and looting after victory give an absorbing image of early Siam. This translation shares the poem--esteemed in Thailand for its historical and literary importance--with a wider audience. Blank verse conveys the rhythm and atmosphere of the original, and annotations explain obscure words and concepts. An afterword analyzes form, content, and the poem's literary and historical significance.
Bestselling novelist Garth Nix returns to the Old Kingdom for the never-before-told love story of Sabriel’s parents, Terciel and Elinor, and the charter magic that brought them together—and threatened to tear them apart. A long-awaited prequel to a classic fantasy series. In the Old Kingdom, a land of ancient and often terrible magics, eighteen year-old orphan Terciel learns the art of necromancy from his great-aunt Tizanael. But not to raise the Dead, rather to lay them to rest. He is the Abhorsen-in-Waiting, and Tizanael is the Abhorsen, the latest in a long line of people whose task it is to make sure the Dead do not return to Life. Across the Wall in Ancelstierre, a steam-age country where magic usually does not work, nineteen year-old Elinor lives a secluded life. Her only friends an old governess and an even older groom who was once a famous circus performer. Her mother is a tyrant, who is feared by all despite her sickness and impending death . . . but perhaps there is even more to fear from that. Elinor does not know she is deeply connected to the Old Kingdom, nor that magic can sometimes come across the Wall, until a plot by an ancient enemy of the Abhorsens brings Terciel and Tizanael to Ancelstierre. In a single day of fire and death and loss, Elinor finds herself set on a path which will take her into the Old Kingdom, into Terciel’s life, and will embroil her in the struggle of the Abhorsens against the Dead who will not stay dead. *USA Today Bestseller* “One of the greatest living fantasy writers. I will never get enough of the Old Kingdom.” —Sarah J. Maas, #1 New York Times bestselling author
The first book to cover Krishna’s entire life, from his childhood pranks to his final powerful acts in the Mahabharata war • Draws from the Bhagavad Purana, the Bhagavad Gita, the Mahabharata, and India’s sacred oral tradition • Shows how the stories of Krishna’s life are expressed with such simplicity and humor that they enable anyone--man, woman, or child--to see the wisdom of his teachings • Provides a valuable meditative tool that allows the lessons of these stories to illuminate from within Krishna, one of the most beloved characters of the Hindu pantheon, has been portrayed in many lights: a god-child, a prankster, a model lover, a divine hero, an exemplary ruler, and the Supreme Being. In The Complete Life of Krishna, Vanamali, a leading Krishna expert from a long line of prominent Krishna devotees, provides the first book in English or Sanskrit to cover the complete range of the avatar’s life. Drawing from the Bhagavad Purana, the Bhagavad Gita, the Mahabharata, and India’s sacred oral tradition, Vanamali shares stories from Krishna’s birth in a dungeon and early days as a merry trickster in Vrindavana, through his time as divine ruler at Dwaraka, to his final powerful acts as the hero Arjuna’s charioteer and guru in the Kurukshetra war. She explains how Krishna became a mahayogi, the greatest of all yogis, and attained complete mastery over himself and nature. By integrating the hero-child with the mahayogi, the playful lover with the divine ruler, Vanamali shows how the stories of Krishna’s life are expressed with such simplicity and humor that they enable anyone--man, woman, or child--to see the wisdom of his teachings. This complete biography of the man who was also a god provides a valuable meditative tool allowing Krishna’s lessons to illuminate from within.
A major addition to the literature of poetry, Edward Hirsch’s sparkling new work is a compilation of forms, devices, groups, movements, isms, aesthetics, rhetorical terms, and folklore—a book that all readers, writers, teachers, and students of poetry will return to over and over. Hirsch has delved deeply into the poetic traditions of the world, returning with an inclusive, international compendium. Moving gracefully from the bards of ancient Greece to the revolutionaries of Latin America, from small formal elements to large mysteries, he provides thoughtful definitions for the most important poetic vocabulary, imbuing his work with a lifetime of scholarship and the warmth of a man devoted to his art. Knowing how a poem works is essential to unlocking its meaning. Hirsch’s entries will deepen readers’ relationships with their favorite poems and open greater levels of understanding in each new poem they encounter. Shot through with the enthusiasm, authority, and sheer delight that made How to Read a Poem so beloved, A Poet’s Glossary is a new classic.