Books releasing this week: Symbols, struggles, and stories

Explore this week’s top book releases, featuring Navtej Sarna’s history of the Indian Tricolour, Jean-Pierre Filiu’s harrowing Gaza reportage, and Satish Gujral’s classic artistic memoir.

5 Essential New Books to Read This Week
5 Essential New Books to Read This Week

A Flag to Live and to Die For

Navtej Sarna
Aleph Book Company
Pp 154, Rs 499

In this book, writer and former diplomat Navtej Sarna traces the extraordinary journey which turned an ordinary piece of cloth into a sacred national symbol. Through momentous events such as the Nagpur Flag Satyagraha, 1923; the Purna Swaraj declaration at Lahore, 1929; and Gandhi’s Salt March, 1930, Sarna shows how the tricolour became a rallying standard for freedom. A Flag to Live and Die For is an unsurpassable tribute to the revered national symbol that continues to unite and define India.

A Historian in Gaza

Jean-Pierre Filiu
Westland Books
Pp 208, Rs 499

Jean-Pierre Filiu, acclaimed historian of Gaza, is familiar with the land’s people and places. But nothing prepared him for what he encountered there in December 2024. This is his unforgettable, intimate account of one month in a place shattered by Israel’s all-out war. Filiu’s haunting portrait of a land betrayed is a grim work of war reportage, documented with the acuity of a historian; and a lyrical narrative of human suffering, and human dignity.

A BRUSH WITH LIFE

Satish Gujral
HarperCollins
Pp 248, Rs 1,199

First published in 1997, A Brush with Life remains a lucid and unsparing account of an artist’s journey through loss, conviction and renewal. It traces Satish Gujral’s path from his childhood in Jhelum to his artistic evolution in Lahore, Bombay, Mexico and beyond, and his encounters with Faiz Ahmad Faiz, Octavio Paz, Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi, while reflecting on art, politics and the making of modern India.

The Bengal Reader

Edited & translated by Arunava Sinha
Aleph Book Company
Pp 600, Rs 1,199

The Bengal Reader is the most expansive anthology of Bengali writing in translation yet published in one volume. Ranging from the 19th century to the present, it opens up the wealth of Bengali writing to a wide audience, both Bengali and non-Bengali.  Vast and unparalleled in its scope, The Bengal Reader reflects the literary life of Bengal across two centuries. It will outlast generations and stand the test of time.

Notes On Being A Man

Scott Galloway
Simon & Schuster
Pp 288, Rs 799

In this book, Scott Galloway explores what it means to be a man today, and provides a roadmap for healthy masculinity and mental strength. He shares his own story from boyhood to manhood. In exploring issues like childhood, depression, anger, pressure, money and relationships, he shares the sometimes funny, often painful, lessons he learned along the way. With unflinching honesty, Galloway maps out an inspiring operator’s manual.

This article was first uploaded on January twenty-four, twenty twenty-six, at forty-one minutes past five in the evening.