The Inevitable

This is my first Review. I hope to write many more this year, and make it a point to read more books sincerely.In 2016, my goal was to read only Indian authors. I don't believe that Indian authors start and end with Chetan Bhagat, or Amitav Ghosh. I believe in the real writer who is influenced by global and Indian elements in his writing. For that, I decided to make my purchases of books offline, at the cafe-and-shop outlets. The first book I found this year was The Inevitable, and I decided th [...]

I finished reading The Inevitable in three hours. It is such a good, gripping book. The most refreshing feature is that the book lets you take a break from a story with a short poem that is full of poignancy and meaningfulness. The lines in the poetry are very memorable, and the prose is very rich and well crafted. My favourite stories in the book are Darkness, The Yellow Wall, Ashes of Bad Writers and Love for Tea. The poem The Search for Love is a highly mature piece of poetry. I will recommen [...]

It often takes just a letter to make or break a word, in its placement within a sentence. Those sentences then get together to tell a story. Having the power or rather, the knack of such placements gives a writer the power to conquer the world, by way of words, 'mere' words if they can even be called so!A house on the mountains, amidst acres of tea plantation, the pitter patter of raindrops as they hit the roof and the surroundings, a hot cup of chai(tea) and your thoughts for company- sounds se [...]

I am a fan of off-beat publishing houses and the books they come out with. When I saw The Inevitable on the shelves of the book shop I go to, I had no doubts about making the purchase. It was inevitable indeed. This is my first review outside of my professional reviewing capacity. Now having hung my robes there, I am now here on Good Reads. Judging a book by its cover invariably does tend to happen. I try not to - but when a cover begins to beckon you, you cannot ignore the book for long, try as [...]

Does Ashay Abbhi go around with severed hands?*Arvind Passey reviews the book on 27 March 2015*Besides the question that the title poses, others could be: ‘Do book reviewers always have murder in their thoughts?’ Or ‘Why do writers get unreadable stuff published?’ Or ‘Is every reader qualified to call a book bad or good?’ Or ‘Is a book that disgusts one reader end up disgusting every other?’ These questions have come up in my mind because one of the stories in ‘The Inevitable†[...]

I read Sakshi Nanda's review of The Inevitable and picked up a copy. Inspired by her, I wrote a book review in the hope that it will justify my interest.There is a thriving sense of life even if death is the master character in all the stories. The opening poem, Imagine, is like the opening act for the entire book, and it sets the stage very effectively. Every poem and story combination that follows is a shuttle between the vagaries of life and the macabre dimensions that colour these lives. The [...]

The Inevitable is one of the best books I have read about Death, in a long time. The other benchmark I have is Markus Zusak's The Book Thief, where Death tells the story - but in The Inevitable, Death tells you more than one story, and in all these stories, Death is actually, well, humane. The characters are relateable, and the thought behind each story makes you want to revisit them again, and again, and again.

The Inevitable made a very good read. It's a mix of short-stories and poetry and the author strikes a chord with both. He creates beautiful imageries with his narrative. The writing is free-flowing; the characters are believable; and the stories convey a wide range of emotions without being emotionally manipulative.Hope to read more by Ashay Abbhi in the future.