Silent House - Orhan Pamuk
 
           A slow and silent read. Pamuk talks about his place Turkey and the political unrest of early 80 's. Takes you through the life of six central characters in a soliloquy kind of writing. He describes the fig trees and cherry orchards along with the nationalist communist riot  in a simple but serious manner. The country side of cennethisar is described in wonderful prose through the eyes of the six central characters. Makes you fall in love with Nilgun,  the communist...while u are lost listening to the stories of Faruk,  the historian...when the housekeeper Recep offers you a coffee, you are far away with Metin and his folks driving on an old anadol listening to "Best of elvis", almost running over Hasan and his natinalist friends while they are out on the highway in the middle of the night on a mission to paint all the walls with nationalist slogans...while you think about home and the grandma waiting for you.
        

One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez


                   The best book in the history of mankind. This is one book in which you would spend time even without realizing it. Filled with the elements of magical realism, a literary style in which unnatural things happen in the most natural way. Prose is wonderful and urges you to read and reread the content again and again. The story revolves around a town called Macondo and its inhabitants. Goes in detail about the Buendia Family and the changes which they face in course of time. Takes you through the period of civil war in Latin America and its impact on the the people in Macondo. Maconda is magical and imaginary. But one thing which people look forward every year is the arrival of gypsies with the news on inventions from outside world. Melquaides, the gypsy stays behind and leaves a parchment with the Buendia family, which no one can decipher until it attains one hundred years of solitude.

                A beautiful read....


                                                                                                            -Nisanth Thomas
                                                                                                         (nisanththomas@gmail.com)