The Hindu On Books newsletter: Samantha Harvey wins 2024 Booker Prize for ‘Orbital’, Aditya Iyer’s ‘Gully Gully’ and more

Welcome to this edition of The Hindu on Books Newsletter. It reflects Harvey’s extraordinary intensity of attention to the precious and precarious world we share.” In her review, Nandini Bhatia writes that Harvey offers a unique perspective in her novel, which concludes with a panoramic view of the “beautiful velvety poverty of man on earth that tips into the void”. We ‘must never forget the price humanity pays for its moments of glory, because humanity doesn’t know when to stop, it doesn’t know when to call it a day’.” In reviews, we read Malcolm Gladwell’s new book, a volume on the 2023 cricket World Cup, Richard Powers’ latest novel and more. Rafi, the bibliophile who will give up everything for a simpler life, tells Todd, the coding whiz who’ll become an AI pioneer: “If every atom in the universe was a little universe that itself had as many atoms as the entire universe had, the total number of atoms would still be smaller than the number of possible Go game states.” The drama – to play the game or not -- plays out amidst very human emotions: friendship, betrayal, love, revenge, redemption. Mir’s brilliance is evident throughout his work, justifying his title as the ‘god of poetry’.” Aditya Iyer’s Gully Gully chronicles the journey of one of the greatest Indian white-ball sides ever built, that went on a nine-city pilgrimage around the country mesmerising supporters through the 2023 ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup.