SCENES OF A RECLUSIVE WRITER & READER OF MUMBAI

Essays about the impact of books on a solitary life.

Pathan’s (The Reclusive Writer & Reader of Bandra, 2018, etc.) collection of essays analyzes how her favorite books and reading haunts in Mumbai shaped her into the person she is today. The 30-year-old self-described “reclusive, bookish introvert” takes readers on her journey as an inveterate reader, author, and publisher. She also weaves significant personal events into the narrative in intriguing ways. Some of the most profound essays center on a favorite book or series (Dracula, Archie comics, The Exorcist, the Tintin series, The Collected Works of A.J. Fikry, Still Alice, The Hidden Life of Trees, The Holocaust as Culture) or a genre (she loves horror, the classics, Agatha Christie’s detective novels, and Robin Cook’s medical thrillers). Some stinging essays voice her disdain for the caste system in India and global injustices; others capture her human rights advocacy (“I am Malala”; “I, Phoolan Devi”). In the essays that form the core of the book, Pathan shares the effervescent joy that she experienced when she discovered special bookshops and libraries that felt like a true home and how she met a few kindred spirits—although she unequivocally states that she prefers books to people. In one single day, she bought 106 books, she says, and she aims to read 200 books a year; they are her teachers, her parents, her friends, her muses, and, most importantly, her refuge. She recounts painful life experiences, such as incidents of street harassment and expressions of derision from her father, so often that it may make readers uncomfortable—a brilliant and subtle way of relating her despair, her anger, and her reasons for retreating into the literary world. At more than 350 pages, the collection is rather lengthy, but the prose is so kinetic that it reads much faster than many readers may expect. It comes complete with a surprise ending that, upon reflection, perhaps isn’t so surprising after all.

A quirky, spellbinding collection that bibliophiles will relish.