City Under Curfew and other stories: Book Review

-


Book Title: City Under Curfew and other stories

Author: Fazayal Shabbir

Publishers: Leadstart Publishing

My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

About the Author: Fazayal Shabbir has followed the traditional route of mechanical engineering topped with a post graduate diploma in business management on the academic front but is unconventional in other aspects of his life. He holds a black belt in Judo and accomplishments at state level, and sports is closest to his heart.

Book Review:

It is an assorted collection of 12 short stories which make for quick and easy reading. I find paperbacks keep me hooked longer than ebooks do and such stories are the easiest way to bring me back into the rhythm of reading.

I could relate to the title story the most because I'm a 90s kid from Mumbai who has seen those scenes of curfew during the Hindu- Muslim riots and the cold-blooded encounters in by-lanes. I was a tad bit sad that the remaining stories that follow in the book are not based on the same topic and neither do they have anything to do with Covid-curfews. Each tale felt like a glimpse from the lives of people I felt I'd met at some point of time. 

I like stories with twisted, unexpected ends and I found one or two such treats in this book. I don't want to give out spoilers by naming the title of the story.

The story of the man with six failed suicide attempts reminded me of a popular recent web series. I enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed watching the more elaborate movie version.

Simplistic storytelling, but fairly well- edited collection of tales. I wish the author all the luck with his future endeavours! 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tell Me A Story- Book Review

-
Image
Book Title: Tell Me a Story (An Anthology) Author (Compiled by): Ravinder Singh Publisher: PENGUIN metro reads My Rating : ***1/2 About the Author/s:  Ravinder Singh who compiled this anthology is a software engineer by profession,  brought up in a very small town of Orissa called Burla.  Before editing and compiling this anthology, Ravinder Singh had also launched an anthology of Love stories titled 'Love Stories That Touched My Heart'. The author has many other published books to his credit. The twenty one other authors who have contributed to the anthology come from different professional backgrounds but are storytellers for sure! 'Tell Me A Story'- the name of the book itself is a promising title that will compel lovers of the written word to reach out for the book. The subtitle says that the anthology has inspiring, touching, funny and heartfelt stories from life. And I'm a big sucker for true stories, so one can imagine my excitement to rea
Read more

Escape

-
Image
This post has been published by me as a part of the Blog-a-Ton 10 ; the tenth edition of the online marathon of Bloggers; where we decide and we write. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton . Only one black and yellow taxi was parked by the side of the road, in the lee of the tall building near the gate. The Taxi driver was catching up on his afternoon siesta in the back seat of the car with his feet jutting out like poles. Enrique crooned over the radio in the taxi, “You can run...” The driver’s snoring rose above his voice but I heard his words. I felt my legs break into a trot and my heart throb with pain. A nerve in my head was beating like a thousand hammers. And I was sprinting down the lane, tears streaming down my cheeks. I cared a fig about the onlookers. I was trying to escape. I was trying to escape from a truth. I was trying to run back to my home, sweet home! It was a long run home and I didn’t want to stop. I was running bac
Read more

Yakshini: Book Review

-
Image
Book Title: Yakshini (Kindle Edition) Author: Neil D'Silva Publishers: Rupa Publications My Rating: ***** About the Author: Neil D'Silva is an author of 12 horror novels and Yakshini is yet another of his books that has been acquired for screen adaptation. He is the President of the Indian Chapter of the Horror Writers Association, and is also a TEDx Speaker.  Let me make a disclaimer before I begin to talk about this book. Even though I am in the author's circle of virtual friends and I've been a fan of his writing since his very first book, this particular book review has not been solicited by the author and neither is my impression of the book biased.  Like I've said many times before, I pick a book by it's cover, quite literally. It has got to be love at first sight! And then a little knowledge about the author and his style helps. Sometimes I veer towards books via recommendations by like-minded friends but I stopped reading back blurbs long ago. As soo
Read more