1
of
1
Salt and Pepper
Selected Literary Columns
Series: The India List
Brief Description
A fierce and witty portrait of an unravelling nation. Salt and Pepper is a collection of literary columns that defy convention—acerbic, tender, and unrelenting in their gaze. Written between the margins of news and national spectacle, these pieces are not topical commentary but something far more...
Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
TEMPORARILY OUT OF STOCK
Please add to wishlist to be notified when back in stock
Sorry, we're currently out of stock of Salt and Pepper. Please add to your Wishlist and we'll send you an email as soon as it's back in stock.
Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and
still learning, it may not be perfect - your
feedback is welcome!
Description
A fierce and witty portrait of an unravelling nation.
Salt and Pepper is a collection of literary columns that defy convention—acerbic, tender, and unrelenting in their gaze. Written between the margins of news and national spectacle, these pieces are not topical commentary but something far more enduring: political satire that reads like poetry, reportage that mutates into parable, lament, and fable.
In these dispatches from a fractured republic, written over the past decade, journalist Sankarshan Thakur captures the surreal absurdities and deep disquiet of an India caught between thunderous assertion and muffled dissent. Governments speak in acronyms, mobs chant in hashtags, silence acquires a sound—and memory becomes an act of resistance.
These are chronicles of a society slipping into curated amnesia, of belonging turned conditional, and of patriotism twisted into performance.
Series: The India List
View all-
A Thousand Cranes for India
In Japan, there is a legend that anyone who folds one thousand paper cranes will have their wishes realised. But folding cranes, and the meditative, solemn care that it involves, has come to mean more than just an exercise in wish-making. Origami cranes have become a symbol of renewal, atonement, and warning. Their symbolism may have emerged out of Japan’s...Paperback$4099Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 3-4 weeks -
Beggar’s Bedlam
A hilarious and absurdist take on the political landscape of West Bengal, India. Beggar's Bedlam is a surreal novel that unleashes the chaos of the carnival on the familiar. Part literary descendant of Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita and part a reconstruction of lost Bengali history, Nabarun Bhattacharya's masterpiece is a jubilant, fizzing wire of subaltern anarchy and insurrection. Marshall...Hardback$3999Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 3-4 weeks -
General Firebrand and His Red Atlas
A fast-paced and action-packed dystopian novel, addressing the nature of power, the limits of rationality, and the dominance of fear. In a world on the brink of totalitarian rule, one man rises from the shadows to ignite a revolution and becomes the unlikely leader of a war of resistance that will shake the very foundations of power. General Firebrand, an...Hardback$4799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 3-4 weeks -
Hawa Hawa
A collection of inventive and surprising short stories from one of India’s most prominent countercultural writers. In this wildly inventive collection of Nabarun Bhattacharya’s stories, we meet characters such as a trigger-happy cop in an authoritarian police state, a man who holds on to a piece of rope from a deadly noose, a retired revolutionary thrilled by delusions of grandeur,...Hardback$3999Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 3-4 weeks -
Our Santiniketan
A brief, evocative memoir from one of India’s greatest writers. “Like a dazzling feather that has fluttered down from some unknown place... How long will the feather keep its colours, waiting? The ‘feather’ stands for memories of childhood. Memories don’t wait.” In Our Santiniketan, the late Mahasweta Devi, one of India’s most celebrated writers, vividly narrates her days as a...Hardback$3599Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 3-4 weeks -
Our History, Their History, Whose History?
An overview of nationalism and its impact on the study of history from one of India's most prominent historians. In this timely book, historian Romila Thapar delves into the complex world of nationalism and its impact on the interpretations of the past and on the discipline of history itself. History, she expounds, is no mere collection of information and chronology,...Hardback$3599Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 3-4 weeks -
Dog Star
Set in the underbelly of Calcutta, a story that reimagines a city's relationship with its abandoned animals, interlacing dark humour and political critique into a fable of resistance. A city on edge and a reckoning long overdue—Dog Star is a searing fable of vengeance and the limits of human empathy. Nabarun Bhattacharya's novella unfolds in Calcutta, where the city's dogs,...Hardback$3999Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 3-4 weeks -
The Murderer’s Mother
A tense sociopolitical novel exploring power, violence, and morality in 1970s India. The Murderer’s Mother takes readers to the late 1970s in the Indian state of West Bengal, where the Communist Party–led Left Front has just been voted into power. It tells the story of Tapan, who has been installed as a gang leader by the most powerful man in...Hardback$4799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 3-4 weeks -
At the Jincheng Hotel
From one of India's best-known artists, an inspired exploration of China's cities and small towns and villages, highlighting landscapes and everyday life. In 1985, K. G. Subramanyan visited China on an invitation from the China Artists Association, exploring Beijing, the Dunhuang caves, Xinjiang, Shaanxi, and Guangdong. Rather than its old monuments and new cities, what caught his eye were China's...Hardback$7599Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 3-4 weeks -
Gold Sand, Gold Water
A river that once carried gold now bears the weight of memory and the struggles of those who call its banks home. The Subarnarekha River shimmers with legend; once said to carry flecks of gold, it remains a source of both promise and hardship for those who live along its banks. In Gold Sand, Gold Water, Nalini Bera conjures a...Hardback$4799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 3-4 weeks -
Every Day a Celebration
A poetic journey through five decades of Karnataka's history, this collection brings K. S. Nisar Ahmed's timeless verses to a new audience. K. S. Nisar Ahmed captured the soul of Karnataka and the pulse of everyday life in verses that are as provocative as they are deeply lyrical. Every Day a Celebration gathers some of his finest poems, spanning over...Paperback$5199Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 3-4 weeks -
Night breaks apart, like pomegranate seeds in my palm
Aakriti Kuntal wields language like a blade and a balm, carving out poetry that is urgent and unafraid to ask what it means to exist. What does it mean to exist within language—to shape it, and in turn, to be shaped by it? In Night breaks apart, like pomegranate seeds in my palm, Aakriti Kuntal crafts poems that unravel at...Paperback$5500Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 2-3 weeks
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9781803095998
Publisher: Seagull Books London Ltd
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 19 February 2026
Country: United Kingdom
Imprint: Seagull Books London Ltd
Illustration: 27 halftones
Audience: General / adult
DIMENSIONS
Width: 152.0mm
Height: 229.0mm
Weight: 454g
Pages: 144
About the Author
Sankarshan Thakur is one of India’s most original and incisive journalistic voices. Over a career spanning four decades, he has reported from war zones, political heartlands, and margins of all kinds. A long-time editor and columnist at The Telegraph, he is the author of Subaltern Saheb and The Brothers Bihari, among other books.
More from Humour
View all-
Me vs Brain
The hilarious book from TikTok and Insta sensation, Hayley Morris Brain - No one's going to buy your book Me - But it's good! My editor says so! Brain - Well she would, wouldn't she... Btw, didn't you leave your hair straighteners on? Me - I can't get into this now, I've got a book description to write Hello! Hayley...Paperback$2600Elsewhere:$3000Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
What A Way To Go
The Million Copy #1 Bestselling Author of How to Kill Your Family is back with the new book of the moment. Featured in Vogue, Cosmopolitan, Sunday Times Style, You Magazine… 'Super-sharp, lethally witty' - NIGELLA LAWSON 'Delicious' - JOJO MOYES 'Very funny… I inhaled it' - JOE LYCETT ‘Taut, pacy, seamless… a huge pleasure to read’ - MARIAN KEYES ‘I...Paperback$3699Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Murdoku
Place the suspects, reveal the killer! An innovative puzzle book that incorporates murder mysteries with sudoku-like logic. An addictive mix of cosy crime and colourful grid logic puzzles. These visually appealing, addictive puzzles drop solvers into immersive mini murder mysteries, combining the elegant simplicity of games like sudoku with the storytelling of classic logic problems. But Murdoku introduces its own...Paperback$3899Elsewhere:$4000Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Minute Cryptic
Welcome to your brand-new wordplay obsession. From the creators of the hugely popular online puzzle platform, Minute Cryptic, comes this step-by-step guide to solving cryptic crosswords. With over 160 different clues for you to solve, each chapter takes you through a different wordplay concept essential for unlocking cryptic crossword clues. As you complete the book, you'll build your skills and...Paperback$2799Elsewhere:$3600Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
New ReleaseDetective Beans and the Map of Mystery
Enjoy this new DETECTIVE BEANS adventure in the bestselling and award-winning graphic novel series by Li Chen! Your favourite kitten detective is back with a new mystery to solve . . . and treasure to find! When Captain Scuttlebeard gives Beans a treasure map, Beans is determined to find the prize at the end. The clues take him all over...Paperback$1900Elsewhere:$2200Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
The Gate of the Feral Gods
The fourth book in the explosive LitRPG Dungeon Crawler Carl series New Achievement! Total, Utter Failure.You failed a quest less than five minutes after you received it. Now that's talent. Surviving in a multilevel dungeon that also happens to be the set of the galaxy's most watched game show has taught Coast Guard vet Carl and his ex-girlfriend's cat, Princess...Hardback$6000Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
The Wedding People
'BEST READ OF THE YEAR SO FAR' THE TIMES 'BOOKS AS FUN AS THIS ONE ARE FEW AND FAR BETWEEN' GUARDIAN Phoebe Stone arrives at a grand beachside hotel in Rhode Island wearing her best dress and least comfortable shoes. Immediately she is mistaken for one of the wedding people — but she's actually the only guest at the Cornwall...Paperback$2399Elsewhere:$2799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Kitchen Confidential
The classic bestseller from the star of Parts Unknown and No Reservations: 25th Anniversary edition, with a new introduction by Irvine Welsh. BEFORE THERE WAS THE BEAR, THERE WAS BOURDAIN. ‘Elizabeth David written by Quentin Tarantino’ — A.A. Gill ‘Fantastic: as lip-smackingly seductive as a bowl of fat chips and pungent aioli’ — Daily Telegraph After twenty-five years of sex,...Paperback$2500Elsewhere:$2799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Women's Prize WinnerThe Correspondent
84 Charing Cross Road meets A Man Called Ove in this heartwarming, witty story about the life of an extraordinary woman, told through her letters. In her letters to family and friends, we come to know the life of Sybil Van Antwerp—stubborn, cantankerous, opinionated, always steadfast in her belief in the power of the written word. But as the clock...Paperback$2999Elsewhere:$3700Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Game On
Book three in the No.1 New York Times bestselling Into Darkness series,following the dark rom-com sensations Lights Out and Caught Up. The game ison for these enemies-to-lovers with laugh-out-loud banter and scorching-hotbrat play. I hate that woman. Tyler Neumann has spent years looking for his father, and not because he wants to meetthe man. No, he wants to destroy him....Paperback$2299Elsewhere:$2799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
The Eye of the Bedlam Bride
The sixth book in the explosive LitRPG Dungeon Crawler Carl series. Chaos reigns on the eighth floor. Coast Guard vet Carl and Princess Donut have survived longer—and climbed higher—than anyone expected in the galaxy's favourite reality show, but now the game is wide open. The task: capture six monsters and turn them into battle cards. The stronger the creature, the...Hardback$6000Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
The Pumpkin Spice Café (Deluxe Edition)
The first book of the viral Dream Harbor series by #1 New York Times and Sunday Times bestselling author Laurie Gilmore! 🍁 TikTok Made Me Buy It – Winner of the TikTok Shop Book of the Year 2024, Sunday Times and USA Today bestseller. As seen on Good Morning America! 🍁🍁🍁🍁 When Jeanie’s aunt gifts her the beloved Pumpkin Spice...Hardback$4000Elsewhere:$4500Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today
Why buy from us?
Book Hero is not a chain store or big box retailer. We're an independent 100% NZ-owned business on a mission to help more Kiwis rediscover a love of books and reading!
Service & Delivery
Our warehouse in Auckland holds over 100,000 books, toys, board games and puzzles in-stock so you're not waiting for your order to arrive from overseas.
Auckland Bookstore
We're primarily an online store, but for your convenience you can pick up your order for free from our bookstore, which is right next door to our warehouse in Hobsonville.
Our Gifting Service
Books make wonderful thoughtful gifts and we're here to help with gift-wrapping and cards. We can even send your gift directly to your loved one.
