Till death do them part

Susanna’s Seven Husbands (Penguin, Rs 250) by Ruskin Bond comes with the screenplay of the forthcoming film, 7 Khoon Maaf, by Vishal Bhardwaj and Matthew Robbins. In the introduction, Bhardwaj, who has directed the film, describes how Bond transformed the short story of this name into a novella, adding characters and incidents, at his request. He writes, “The character of Susanna captivated me, and I was amazed with Ruskin Saab’s ability as a writer to sketch a character who was so interesting, wicked, but at the same time endearing.” Readers will feel the same as they come to know the feisty Susanna Anna-Maria Johannes, who keeps on “looking for the right person in the wrong place”, marrying and ‘killing’ one after the other, until she herself ‘dies’, only to rise again and drive away. The lines that form the epigraph to Episode Seven, “It isn’t time that’s passing by/ It is you and I...”, sum up the novella most succinctly. This is signature Bond — funny, mischievous and happily mad. It remains to be seen whether the movie succeeds in doing justice to the book.

The Scandinavian Phenomenon: 1222 (Corvus, Rs 299) by Anne Holt is a good old-fashioned thriller — set in an enclosed space, with the killer in the midst of the handful of people there. It reminds one of Dame Christie’s fiction, and of Hitchcock’s unforgettable film, The Lady Vanishes. As in the film, an accident caused by a fierce snowstorm forces the passengers of a train bound for the mountains into an ancient hotel. One of the travellers, a priest known for his popular television shows, is murdered. The choice of the detective — a wheelchair-bound, retired police inspector who is as gruff as she is kind — makes this novel quite unusual.

Now that I’m Fifty! — Stories of women who have scored a half-century (Women Unlimited, Rs 250) by Bulbul Sharma is a collection of short stories about women who have managed to reach a personal milestone — 50 years of surviving life itself. Challenging the popular notion that the fifties mark the beginning of the end, the stories document journeys — both metaphorical and real — that are undertaken by the protagonists. Sharma’s stories are based on a myriad themes — one woman takes refuge in salsa to overcome the pains of a failed marriage; another starts getting visions that help her view things in a new light; a friendship with a stranger forces another woman to think about things that attract and repel her at the same time, and so on. Each tale serves as a reminder that on turning 50, somehow one turns a corner and finds mundane incidents acquiring unexpected edges.

The Vision of Natural Farming (Earthcare, Rs 295) by Bharat Mansata is about the vision of Bhaskar Save, the “Gandhi of Natural Farming”, whose 14-acre orchard, Kalpavruksha, near the coastal village of Dehri, to the north of the Gujarat-Maharashtra border, is a glowing example of what organic farming can achieve. The high yield of Kalpavruksha is a challenge to any modern farm using chemicals. As the book underlines, Save’s way of farming is not just a method but is also a philosophy rooted in the ancient Indian religious texts like the Upanishads. At a time when the depletion of the natural resources of the world is a growing threat, Save’s techniques should serve as a lesson for all.