Then There Was Rain by Atri Kundu

 

 

In this story of love and sacrifice, where Japan meets Kolkata and cherry blossom meets krishnachura, our protagonist will seek to find a home away from home and the answer to — Do we love someone because it is the right thing to do, or do we love them just because we do?

Kiyoshi Higa had grown to disbelieve the notions of love and happily-ever-afters. He never saw these working out in the end, not for him at least. But when his quest to seek a place to belong drove him south, from idyllic Okinawa to the City of Joy, he caught a glimpse of the home he never had in Agnimitra Sen a.k.a. Agni. 

Agni was a steady flame and Kiyoshi embodied a turbulent ocean. She was the woman he could never end up with, and he was the scarred man no one would fall in love with. Yet, his eyes chased the cloud-shaped bird...what if...despite knowing how hope is the killer of reality, he loved and he hoped.

From Kolkata to cherry blossoms, from Okinawa to phuchka, from Rabindrasangeet to haiku – this is the story of a soul stranded at the crossroad of love and guilt – one step down the wrong path, and he will lose all that he held dear.

Perfect for fans of Nicholas Sparks and John Green, Then There Was Rain is at once a metaphorical ode to life, a journey of survival through hope, and a novella with the heartful expanse of an epic.

 

Nine Nasty Words: English in the Gutter: Then, Now, and Forever by John McWhorter

 

 

One of the preeminent linguists of our time examines the realms of language that are considered shocking and taboo in order to understand what imbues curse words with such power--and why we love them so much.

Profanity has always been a deliciously vibrant part of our lexicon, an integral part of being human. In fact, our ability to curse comes from a different part of the brain than other parts of speech--the urgency with which we say "f&*k!" is instead related to the instinct that tells us to flee from danger.

Language evolves with time, and so does what we consider profane or unspeakable. Nine Nasty Words is a rollicking examination of profanity, explored from every angle: historical, sociological, political, linguistic. In a particularly coarse moment, when the public discourse is shaped in part by once-shocking words, nothing could be timelier.