JAMES WALSH is moved by an exhibition of graphic art that relates horrors that would be much less immediate in other media
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Domestic pyrotechnics
MATTHEW HAWKINS is drawn into the everyday lives of women and girls in Muslim communities in southern India
MUSLIM WOMEN'S RIGHTS: A mural from the Shaheen Bagh protests by mostly Muslim women against the BJP's discriminatory Citizen Amendment Act, police brutality, poverty, unemployment and women's safety, February 2020
RON JACOBS welcomes the translation into English of an angry cry from the place they call the periphery
GUILLERMO THOMAS recommends a useful book aimed at informing activists with local examples of solidarity in action around the world
HENRY BELL is provoked by a book that looks toward, but does not fully explore the question of who gets to imagine the shapes of cities to come
MATTHEW HAWKINS surveys the upcoming programme of contemporary dance in Glasgow, and picks some highlights
‘Chance encounters are what keep us going,’ says novelist Haruki Murakami. In Amy, a chance encounter gives fresh perspective to memories of angst, hedonism and a charismatic teenage rebel.
Heart Lamp
Banu Mushtaq, And Other Stories, £14.99
IN Heart Lamp: Selected Stories, matters marinate or smoulder. Readers get to pore over paragraphs while issues ignite.
Amid her precise environments, and their host of vivid social-class enmity/familial powerplay, writer Banu Mushtaq delineates volatile occurrence with trustworthy control. Her succinct flair in sketching distinct three-dimensional allies and adversaries sets her arena for pivotal realisation and outcome. I’m put in mind of the sparking of domestic pyrotechnics, blue touchpaper and all.
In translation by Deepa Bhasthi, many choice Kannada words persist. These are never italicised. The beauty of this choice means not only that the music of given names; details and condition of dress; inventories of foods – and reference to who’s doing the cooking – each remain powerfully intact. Original words are also used where legal forces and devices of tradition come into play and this all feels right, in recognition of documentary authenticity and cultural nuance. English language readers will sense and respect complex entities (Sharia, for example) while protagonists — many of them adorable against the odds — maintain voices of credible immediacy.
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