Monday, April 04, 2011

Book Review: Turtle Dove by Divya Dubey

A real friend is forever available but might never be the one whose kind council is ever heeded to.

Can the power of the mind determine the gender of a foetus?

Must we always see the “older generation” as people we need to respect, or need we rethink what we have been taught?

Six stories, nay issues, which shake the reader even after they have put the book down and make them, think.

Welcome to Turtle Dove by Divya Dubey.

How can a math nerd think and do things which are so far away from his passion?

The book challenges the boundaries of human relationships and pulls up facts, one may not like to address, but can’t run away from them either.

To what extent can a family go, to prove that it is dysfunctional? For such families, is that a normal? Then, will the protagonists be cocooned in the cuckoo’s nest?

Every story is laden with layers of deep insights into psychology, working at the bottom of a surface that is both intriguing and fascinating. In fact, for those who are who are attracted to Psychology as iron filings to a magnet, this book can’t be overlooked.

It’s not as if there is some extraordinary literature here at hand, but yet, the way the stories unfold themselves, you might get absolutely obsessed about the story till you see it through.

I did!

Divya Dubey chose to publish this book herself thereby giving birth to her own Publishing House called Gyaana Books. I wonder if it was a choice or a compulsion because, the stories are so bold, I would hardly be surprised if Publishing houses chickened out.

Last but not the least, writing about love making or acts of sex are some of the toughest writing one can do, in my mind. To engage in the act, dressing it up with words that drag the reader into the performance, both as a participant in terms of the soft hues of excitement caused, and yet, still only an observer, is an art, not given to all writers. Divya Dubey has mastered the art. Hence, the weak hearted and the gentle souls need to skip through many paragraphs.

That is, of course, if they can!


Title: Purple Dove
Author: Divya Dubey
Publisher: Gyaana Books
Website: www.gyaanabooks.com

Pages: 227
Price: 195
Buy: www.flipkart.com
And bookshops in your city

About the author: Divya Dubey is Publisher Gyaana Books. This is her first collection of short stories. She is expecting to write more. She passed out of St Stephen’s College, Delhi, with MA in English. Later she did MA Publishing at Oxford Brookes University, Oxford. Occasionally, she also does articles related to writing/publishing for mainstream newspapers and magazines, and also conduct guest lectures on the same subjects. I was shortlisted for the British Council Young Creative Entrepreneur of the year Award (Publishing) 2010. You can also visit her blog: http://www.dearddsez.blogspot.com/