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CHINA: GLOBAL PREDATOR OR FRANKENSTEIN’S MONSTER?

 
This book reminded me of Peter Navarro's ‘Death by China.’ The title is self explanatory and pretty much suggests how the world seems to perceive China - a predator economy of sorts.

 
However, author Peter S Goodman, the New York Times’s global economics correspondent upends traditional notions. He believes that the top 1 percent of the rich of the world, first made China the sweatshop of the world for their own benefit. They reorganised the world’s supply chain, seeking the cheapest producer, China, whose goods they could sell for maximum profit! 


The pandemic made them cry foul because suddenly, local manufacturing capacity was zilch! Shipping container fleets carrying life-critical items were stuck in global waters- almost 25 trillion dollars- even as those on board, miles away from the shore, wondered when they would get home. There was an urgent need to change tactics.

 
I asked myself the question - are the decision makers of the world really so myopic? COVID might’ve exposed the flaws in the system. But the author asserts that these flaws were deliberately cerated to maximise profit.

 
Here are our five Bookstrapping insights:

 
1. The argument that China is stealing jobs gets gut punched heavily in the book! What started with Chinese workers constructing railroads in the 19th century, recruited by industrialists who monopolised profits, transited later into multinational brands investing in factories that celebrated cheap Chinese labour, choosing to pay them instead of their own workforce. It was all about profits and continues to be about profits. The beneficiary of this production-brand separation is the international investor class, says the author.


2. With the whole world competing for supplies being manufactured in a single country, I realised that countries like India, who don’t import all essentials from China, were far better off! For eg; Chinese factories were the source of 90 percent of several antibiotics sold in the US. Scary!


3. A brilliant chapter analyses how Henry Ford’s business legacy put common sense first and shareholder interest second. He is quoted as follows, “business is a service, not a bonanza!”, arguing in favour of employment generation and the greater good of the people. The chapter is authoritative and evidently deeply researched and is a reminder of the days before ‘Just in Time’ became a mis-marketed holy grail for ‘lean’ business.


4. The emergence of alternatives to China, some early, some post the pandemic such as Vietnam and South America is explained with the support of detailed case studies. The author also questions whether they were alternatives at all, given that China had started putting up manufacturing plants all over South America, so as not to lose their biggest customer- the USA.


5. The author makes good use of the last chapter to talk about how technology is helping people feel more in control of the supply chain itself. But will technology preserve innovation and prevent monopoly is a question that remains to be answered.

 
The author ends on a despondent note- that 'we have surrendered our decency with our sense of economic security'. As a reader though, the alternatives that the author builds in, to analyse how the world has come out of one crisis after another, is a ray of hope.

 
Peter S Goodman’s name must resonate with his previously published bestseller, ‘Davos Man,’ in which he profiles five representative “Davos Men”—members of the billionaire class—chronicling how their shocking exploitation of the global pandemic has accelerated a fifty-year trend of wealth centralization. His language remains consistent, his approach remains meticulous and his hypotheses remains thought provoking, whether you agree with him or otherwise.


Reeta Ramamurthy Gupta is a columnist and bestselling biographer. She is credited with the internationally acclaimed Red Dot Experiment, a decadal six-nation study on how ‘culture impacts communication.’ A reading coach, you can find her on Instagram @OfficialReetaGupta.

Bookstrapping: How the world ran out of everything by Peter S Goodman

LETS KEEP THE BOOKSTORE NOVELS COMING
 
A sequel can make sense only to someone who has read the original book- at least that's what I believe. So, when the opportunity to review ‘More Days at the Morisaki Bookshop’ came my way, I started by reading its prequel, ‘Days at the Morisaki Bookshop.’ I finished both the books in five hours flat. That’s how easy and involving the tale is - simple storyline, highly charged emotions- and that’s perhaps the formula for how a book of fiction becomes a bestseller!

 
Stories set in bookstores have their own quaint charm; have you read A Bookshop of One’s Own, a true tale penned by feminist icon Jane Cholmeley? If not, make sure to put it on your reading list.

 
Here are our five Bookstrapping insights


1. Can a work of fiction be fast as well as slow at the same time? In ‘Days at the Morisaki Bookshop, the reader is introduced to Takako, a young lady who is navigating her way through life, heartbreaks and her career; everything that a young person might experience. She somehow begins to care for her maternal uncle Saturo Morisaki, who runs the eponymous bookstore and his wife Momoko. It is an intensely emotional tale set in a very idyllic environment. In fact, the emotions of the protagonists become more evident, thanks to the languid pace of the novel.


2. The book, strangely enough, introduces us to many readers and begs the question - what does a book mean to the lives of people? How can it bring people together? The book celebrates the curious, real Jimbocho neighbourhood of second-hand book shops in Japan and the people who run these bookstores.


3. The Morisaki Bookshop, one among 170 bookshops stocking second hand books in the area, is known for ‘modern Japanese literature.’ It was not a successful business by any means. But it supports an entire community of people in a uniquely symbiotic manner; people who get to know each other over time and offer social support to each other in very meaningful ways.


4. A very significant part of the book is the story of several Japanese authors and booksthat are imbued into the tale as conversations. The tales of Osamu Dazai, Junichiro Tanizaki, and Sakunosuke Oda come alive in the book as conversations between the protagonists. Memories, identities and culture come alive in a simple story told with great empathy.


5. The two novels raise many questions- could reading be a way to open yourself to the world? Is reading a solitary act after all? How about the work of the many people behind the scenes, who place a book in your hands? And can reading a book change the course of your life?

Yes, I do have a soft corner for novels set in bookstores. Maybe they will propagate the magic of bookstores and reading themselves by bringing that imagery alive.

 
I’m tempted to mention one more book. ‘The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry’ by Gabrielle Zevin, a dramatic novel! In the book, A.J. Fikry, the grumpy owner of Island Books, finds a 2-year-old child sitting on the floor, with a note attached to her, asking Fikry to look after her! Wow!

 
After all, anything can happen in a bookstore.


Reeta Ramamurthy Gupta is a columnist and bestselling biographer. She is credited with the internationally acclaimed Red Dot Experiment, a decadal six-nation study on how ‘culture impacts communication.’ A reading coach, you can find her on Instagram @OfficialReetaGupta.

Bookstrapping: ‘More Days at the Morisaki Bookshop' by Satoshi Yagisawa

'How Big Things Get Done,' is a book about life itself; about getting any project done- whether it's renovating your kitchen, baking a wedding cake or building an airport.

 
Authors Bent Flyvbjerg and Dan Gardner present a compelling argument; all failed projects, create disaster in their wake for nations, corporations and individuals. They have come to the conclusion that most projects are at risk of going disastrously, wrong-and explain why so, in a scientific manner.

Here are our five Bookstrapping insights:-

1. The authors talks about the concept of frozen experience - something that is a by-product of repetition and proven result. They suggest that by taking a modular approach to projects, not only can we cut costs by 30%, but also save enough to end global hunger by 2030! Is that how much money we are wasting across the world? Reality check time!

2. Appendix B in the book, contains 37 research papers published by Bent Flyvbjerg. Clearly, he is an authority when it comes to project management. One of the most endearing parts in the book is how the work of several researchers is acknowledged and celebrated to explain a point of view in a more complete manner. For example, the idea of 'psychological safety' or speaking in your mind within a team, during a project, coined by Harvard's Amy Edmundson, finds relevant room.

3. Like most well researched books, there aren't just anecdotes, but detailed and interesting ones at that. How do authors bring Jimi Hendrix's recording studio and the construction of the T5 Airport at Heathrow in one book and make it so seamless. Has to be a by product of knowing your subject exceedingly well.

4. The authors emphasize that before launching a project, it would be useful to check how long, other similar projects have taken and build an estimate from there. Even if the available estimate is a remote one. The tendency to look at one's own project as 'unique', only endangers the success of any project. The authors also talk about the ugly realities of 'fat tail' projects and how divergent and costly they are, from the normal distribution curve.


5. With a database of more than 16,000 projects from 20 different fields over 136 countries, the authors explain concepts such as commitment fallacy, bad-casting and critical errors such as 'what you see is all there is', with genuine empathy. They also openly confront disagreements.


For eg; Bent Flyvbjerg talks about Albert Hirschmann, a renowned economist at Columbia University, who wrote an essay in support of 'doing things better spontaneously'; too much planning and you tend not to do it.' Disagreeing with Hirschmann, Flyvbjerg says that unplanned successes are exceptions! After all, the failures of not planning enough are rarely discussed. But dig deep enough, and you will find a plethora of them!

Finally, the authors make a strong case for modularity and explain that when it comes to survival of the fittest, the fittest is often a 'module' that is successful in reproducing itself. Hence the core of all successful projects is repetition, experience, lower costs and happy teams. An important book about the specifics of 'project management'- something not much written about! An important book about the principles of 'getting big things done!'


Reeta Ramamurthy Gupta is a columnist and bestselling biographer. She is credited with the internationally acclaimed Red Dot Experiment, a decadal six-nation study on how ‘culture impacts communication.’ A reading coach, you can find her on Instagram @OfficialReetaGupta.


Read More: <a href="https://www.storyboard18.com/brand-makers/bookstrapping-supercommunicators-by-charles-duhigg-36363.htm">Bookstrapping: Supercommunicators by Charles Duhigg</a>

Bookstrapping: How Big Things Get Done by Bent Flyvbjerg and Dan Gardner

Do you want to be helped or hugged or heard?


This is a question the author posits in the book. Methinks its another way of saying, ‘read the room’ before you decide what conversation to have. Charles Duhigg, who is known to ask thought provoking questions in his books, underlines that at the core of every conversation, is figuring out ‘what is this really about!’


Can being a super communicator salvage even the most difficult situations? Are there rules to this? Citing the seminal Harvard research on ‘happiness’, Duhigg encourages us to recognise that since connectedness to each other, is the most important determinant of longevity ; and that higher the degree of social integration, lower the risk of illness and death , communication is not a ‘nice to have’ skill, but a ‘must have’ skill.

 
Here are our five Bookstrapping insights -


1. Miscommunication occurs when people are having different kinds of conversations. For example if one person is speaking emotionally and the other is talking practically, there is a good chance of miscommunication. On the contrary, good communication comes from symmetry. So pause a moment to understand what kind of conversation is happening.


2. In order to be have a meaningful conversation, two people have to match each other. So the question is, ‘do you want to be helped, hugged or heard?’ This is a simple question to set the tone for any conversation- in terms of whether the expectation is to be emotional, empathetic or logical.


3. Every conversation is a negotiation. The book makes an insightful reference to the Harvard Negotiation Project and its outcome, ‘Getting To Yes,’ a book which turned our understanding of negotiation upside down.


4. Meaningful dialogue is also assisted by getting creative; telling stories, jokes, listening more attentively etc; so that a path can emerge. An equally important question is ‘ how do we feel?’ Discussing feelings can help two people discover more about each other and spot 'what makes them uneasy' and how to assuage that.


5. At the world navigates conflict, the author presents a very useful study of communications. Anecdotally rich and insightful, this follows successful editions of his previous works, ‘Power of Habit’ and ‘Smarter, Faster, Better.’


The usual pang of Asian cultures and conversations not featuring in several important books released and celebrated all over the world, cropped up in my mind. Given that most biographies or historical books have a ‘set’ context in terms of place and time and cannot depart from it, one wishes for books on art, culture, self help, productivity- especially those that are anecdotal, to be more inclusive.

 
This observation does not diminish the value of ‘SUPERCOMMUNICATORS’ one bit! 'SUPERCOMMUNICATORS ACROSS CULTURES' might be a very useful sequel from this Pulitzer Prize winning author.

 
How do global bestsellers begin to represent the world we live in in more encompassing ways? Can all of self-help and productivity, as a genre that we review regularly here at BookStrapping, be more inclusive.


Reeta Ramamurthy Gupta is a columnist and bestselling biographer. She is credited with the internationally acclaimed Red Dot Experiment, a decadal six-nation study on how ‘culture impacts communication.’ A reading coach, you can find her on Instagram @OfficialReetaGupta.

Bookstrapping: Supercommunicators by Charles Duhigg

Being a Bharat Ratna is a big deal!


Who is Bharat Ratna Karpoori Thakur?

 
He is the revered former Chief Minister of Bihar who was posthumously honoured with India’s highest civilian award, the Bharat Ratna, in recognition of his extraordinary contributions to society in January 2024. He would’ve turned a 100 years old, had he been alive.

 
Thakur, popularly known as Jannayak was a political luminary who left an indelible mark on the landscape of Bihar and India as a whole. He is best remembered for his announcement of reservation allotment to various societal segments during his brief two and a half year tenure as Bihar’s chief minister. 

 
The book is a uniquely glocal project bringing together a journalist and an academician; Author Santosh Singh is as much a son of the soil as it gets, being an Indian print journalist with three political books to his credit, viz. Ruled Or Misruled: The Story and Destiny of Bihar (Bloomsbury, 2015), JP TO BJP (Vitasta Sage Select, 2021) Kitna Raaj Kitna Kaaj (Vani Prakashan, 2023). 


Co-author Aditya Anmol is an alumnus of the University of Chicago and New York University. One joyful celebration of this unique partnership is thenomenclature of the fourteen chapters! Sample this, ‘Caste Catches Up: The Leader of Unopposition' and other quaint gems imbued with local flavour.

 
Here are our five Bookstrapping insights:


1. This book is about peeling off the layers of Indian politics and society. Readers meet a revolutionary figure, that we simply and sadly don’t know enough about. At a time when the call for social justice is restricted to being a political slogan, Karpoori Thakur’s purpose was meaningful.


2. The book helps the reader navigate the concept of democratic socialism - and engage in a lively debate on the same. After all, Karpoori Thakur is known for free education, the democratisation of education by removing English as a mandatory language and for strengthening the Panchayati Raj system. Tall order!


3. The book explores Karpoori Thakur’s affinity to Mahabharata’s Eklavya- a wronged warrior-in detail. In the Jannayak’s own words, “Eklavya is a symbol of injustice, atrocity, disparity, neglect and deprivation of one’s rights in our social system; what was meted out to Eklavya is a living example of injustice and atrocity happening for 5000 years in Indian society." Referring to how nobody was willing to teach Eklavya, the Jannayak says, “Whenever the poor try to excel in any art form they are discouraged, humiliated and even destroyed! What happened to Eklavya has been happening to many others even today we must not stop with celebrating the anniversary of Eklavya.” Quite poignant.


4. This book will remain a milestone for years to come; many urban readers will have to familiarise themselves with the context of the book itself! Kapoori Thakur remains the primary reference for socialism after Dr Ram Manohar Lohia and Jaiprakash Narayan. He is widely believed to have impacted the reservation ideology nationwide and the book tells you about his motivations and his travails.


5. In fact, it is said that when the Jannayak passed away in 1988, several leaders went to his village to pay tributes. When they saw the condition of his house, they were moved to tears- how can someone so towering have a house so simple!


Possibly the highest phrase for Karpoori Thakur is that he was a politician uncorrupted by power! Born into a traditional barber's family, the author says that he continued to walk on razor’s edge throughout his life.

 
After all, being a Bharat Ratna is a big deal! #Respect


Reeta Ramamurthy Gupta is a columnist and bestselling biographer. She is credited with the internationally acclaimed Red Dot Experiment, a decadal six-nation study on how ‘culture impacts communication.’ A reading coach, you can find her on Instagram @OfficialReetaGupta.

Bookstrapping - The Jannayak Karpoori Thakur: Voice of the Voiceless by Santosh Singh and Aditya Anmol

Do revolutions contain the seeds of their own undoing?

 
Those following international affairs would be extremely familiar with Fareed Zakaria of CNN . 'Age of Revolutions: Progress and Backlash from 1600 to the Present' is his fourth book. In his trademark style, he asks disturbing questions and refuses to put a lid conflicts with faux understanding.

 
First up, he is painting on a very broad canvas, covering the period from 1600 to the present. Daunting as it is, the book took him ten years to write and understandably so. Here are our five #Bookstrappping insights.

 
1. One of the important points the author tries to make in the book is that we needlessly romanticise the past. He categorically says that he has no desire to return to the comforts of an ‘imagined past.’ The dimly remembered golden age that people refer to, was perhaps not so golden after all its inequalities, repression and patriarchy. Quite true, even from a medical advancement and age expectancy perspective.


2. Zakaria proposes that the first move to defy monarchy and form a republican government was in the late 16th century; viz. the revolution in the Netherlands. This was an important movement that also spread to Britain, which soon after also pioneered the industrial revolution. Zakaria also puts in perspective, the aftermath of the failed French revolution and points out that we are currently in the midst of a massive churn that impacts the economics, technology, identity and geopolitics of the world. Everywhere you look, there is dramatic change and the rules-based international order has been destabilized!


3. Zakaria adds authoritatively that among other things, every revolution thrives despite deep resistance and also creates a new identity for its people. For example, the industrial resolution created a category called the ‘working class’.


4. Zakaria is not averse to making statements that would make the most ardent liberalists squirm! For even though the nations of the world had long struggles for independence, the resultant freedom has perhaps made people quite ‘lost’, simply because it comes at the expense of authority and tradition! With the binding forces of religion, customs and communities being discarded, people are freer but, lonelier. Food for thought?


5. Zakaria goes on to emphasise that the state of the world today, is dispersed. There is a loss of faith in God, religion, politics, institutions, norms, and experts. Referencing Lee Kuan Yew’s work in Singapore, he asks, “How do we build a common civic culture?”

 
The post Brexit unified Europe maybe worth celebrating after all! Zakaria remarks that modern civilisation may have given human beings, greater freedom, wealth, and dignity, then any before it! However, the more disunited, petty and myopic we are, the easier it is for us to lose confidence and destroy ourselves in the bargain! So all progress may come to nought if we do not give up our radicalism!

 
A wonderful tome to be discussed in every book club around the world.


Reeta Ramamurthy Gupta is a columnist and bestselling biographer. She is credited with the internationally acclaimed Red Dot Experiment, a decadal six-nation study on how ‘culture impacts communication.’ A reading coach, you can find her on Instagram @OfficialReetaGupta

Bookstrapping - Age of Revolutions by Fareed Zakaria

An eight-step recipe for global citizenship!

 
Who is author Michael Sheldrick? He is the driving force behind the advocacy efforts of Global Citizen - founded as the Global Poverty Project in 2008-to end extreme poverty. Those who remember the Coldplay concert in India in 2016 as part of Global Citizens’ efforts, might be able to connect the dots.

 
In his foreword to the book, actor and supporter of Global Citizen, Idris Elba recounts a memory; Sheldrick once told him that when it came to advocacy, 'showing up' was half the work! And showing up consistently, so that your ideas can have impact, is the message of the book! As you navigate the book, you get introduced to the idea of ‘policy entrepreneurship,’ which its about making lasting change happen!The author quotes Steve Jobs, who said, “There is a tremendous amount of craftsmanship in between a great idea and a great product. The same applies to policy as well.” Touché!

 
Our five Bookstrapping insights from the book are as follows - 


1. When it comes to planning for impact, the magnitude of the problem itself can be quite daunting. For eg; during the global lockdown of 2020, the collective greenhouse gas emissions reduced only by 4.6%. This is far from the 50% reduction needed to be achieved by 2030 to avoid climate change. Realisations such as these, place a problem in context. 


2. Another question the author poses is about perceptions- “Do you want to win an argument or change the world?” As we are magnetised by those who say the right things on social media, Sheldrick reminds us that the world needs leaders who will commit to the route to peace and NOT make a detour around it.


3. The book offers an eight step guide to policy entrepreneurship. In other words, eight steps to getting things done! Policy entrepreneurship itself, is about people combining the visionary, diplomatic, and implementation approaches, to transform an idea into tangible impact.


4. Peppered with real life anecdotes, such as Coldplay powering an entire show with energy from repurposed BMW car batteries, the book humanises advocacy. Sheldrick asks you to humanise your story in the same way, when you set out to convert your ideas for a better world, into action.


5. An important gut check I took away from the book is this. How would you pitch your ideas? “Imagine you have 15 minutes with the President, and if he thought you have a compelling idea, he was willing to pick up the phone and call anyone.” The author quotes Obama’s advisor to drive home the point, that knowing who your stakeholder is and how to make an impact is key!
The book makes a strong case for ‘hope-based communication.’

 
So, instead of focusing your narrative on the problem and making people despondent, centre it on solutions instead! The other big takeaways is that really 'successful policy breakthroughs’ are marked by no one party getting everything! It is only when people have the courage to accept imperfect settlements, do agendas move forward. I specifically recommend this book to those who feel uncertain or pessimistic about the future of the world and our ability to find solutions!


Reeta Ramamurthy Gupta is a columnist and bestselling biographer. She is credited with the internationally acclaimed Red Dot Experiment, a decadal six-nation study on how ‘culture impacts communication.’ A reading coach, you can find her on Instagram @OfficialReetaGupta

Bookstrapping: From Ideas to Impact by Michael Sheldrick

Nicolas Hamilton shares his last name and his love for racing with his 7-time F1 world champion brother Lewis Hamilton. But the similarity stops there.

 
The title of his book, ‘Now that I have your attention, I hope to inspire you’ is a stroke of genius. Because persons with disabilities, like Nicolas, have our sympathy but not our attention. Nicolas Hamilton was born with cerebral palsy. He found it in himself to tune out the noise, despite being told by ‘enough times, by enough people’ that his life experiences would be limited. And he tells us in this book, that it all boils down to ‘leap of faith’ and ‘defiance,’ both!

 
Here are our five Bookstrapping insights:


1. From ‘simulations racing’ to the real racing track, Nicolas Hamilton’s journey to leave his wheelchair, walk unaided and become a racer, came with the support of his older brother Lewis Hamilton. And of course, from the voice within.


2. The book is structured into seven chapters- more like seven lessons from Nicolas Hamilton’s life. These are extremely relevant for parents raising kids with disabilities; as the author explains- people talk ‘about’ your kids but not ‘to’ your kids. And this lack of acknowledgement can be awful for their sense of identity.


3. My gut feel is that this book would be useful for anyone who feels excluded, for reasons other than disability too. Such as social status or even caste in some societies.


4. What is worse, is that the first flush of success, after years of feeling left out, comes with its own challenges. The loneliness of exclusion can bring negative influences into your life, who now see your money and encourage you to be part of activities like gambling. Before you know it, the discipline which created your success melts away and you hit rock bottom. This is what happened to Nicolas and he had to build himself, the second time around.


5. Therefore, it is no surprise that Nicolas talks about the chance to pass on his wisdom as a ‘privilege’. And it is this bare honesty with which this book has been written too. Talking about his meltdowns, he says, “by showing my vulnerability and being kind to myself in those moments, I've actually made myself stronger in the long run.” Dismissing the classic ‘stiff upper lip’ as hogwash, he says that keeping it all in is the reason for high rates of male suicide in the UK.


For the uninitiated, at the height of his success, Nicolas Hamilton stood 6th in a race fill of able-bodied drivers, in the BTCC (British Touring Car Championship), the pinnacle of British motorsport.

 
Even today, every rejection he faces- whether not getting sponsorships for a race or having confirmed sponsors drop out last minute- takes him back to his childhood! Yanking himself out of it by flexing his perseverance muscle, he tells his readers that all success comes at some cost. We just have to make sure its worth it!


Reeta Ramamurthy Gupta is a columnist and bestselling biographer. She is credited with the internationally acclaimed Red Dot Experiment, a decadal six-nation study on how ‘culture impacts communication.’ A reading coach, you can find her on Instagram @OfficialReetaGupta

Bookstrapping: Now that I have your attention by Nicolas Hamilton

A life richly lived?
 
Readers of fiction need no introduction to Matthew Reilly. He is the bestselling author of the’ Scarecrow’ series, the ‘Jack West’ series and numerous standalone novels. His latest book, 'Mr. Einstein’s Secretary' is ‘historical fiction’ set around the 1920s to 1940s. So a few fictional characters meet a set of real characters at an important period in history and a story plays out from there.

 
Our heroine is Hanna Fisher; a fictional character who escapes Berlin in 1919 after the death of her mother and the murder of her father! She also has a psychotic twin sister who lives at a mental institution. Orphaned, Hanna is left alone to struggle in America and takes up a job as a secretary, even though her childhood aspiration was to be a physicist. She eventually meets Einstein again, becomes his personal assistant!


1. Set in the period before, during, and after the Second World War, our leading lady Hanna Fischer harbours a dream to be a physicist like her next-door neighbour, Albert Einstein. The author paints Einstein to be a kind grandfather-figure to Hanna, rather than the 'smartest person’ who ever lived. Read Einstein's response ton Fraulein Schmidt's beliefs in part one of the book to understand this better.


2. Hanna Fischer lived all of 40 years and in this short span of time, found herself inserted by a string of coincidences into history’s most poignant moments. She had a most vile sister, ‘Ooma’, who took her love and her identity away among other things; and perhaps is the real villain of the story. 


3. Some scenes in the book are absolutely appalling! There are two real villains in the book- one is Werner Heisenberg ( scientist in the Nazis’ atomic research project) and the other is Albert Speer (Minister of armaments ). At one time, as Albert Speer’s secretary, Hanna tours the construction site that would later become Auschwitz, only to hear conversations describing how efficient the ‘ovens’ there would be, when it came to cremating the remains of murdered human beings.


4. Another factual thread in the book is that the period before 1920 was one during which the European nations were fighting each other and America outgrew Europe. And Hanna saw this contrast in action, as everyone in America was getting ‘richer and richer.’


5. In the opening chapter, Einstein attends Hanna’s funeral. Here was a man whom Hanna got to know first as a child, when she thought that his moustache was ‘droopy to the point of being cartoonish, looking like a cute busy animal dozing on his upper lip.’ His speech at her funeral, is about how she saved civilian lives by disclosing the location of a German rocket site in northern France and again by deceiving senior Nazis and keeping Einstein’s work on building an atomic weapon away from their prying eyes.

 
The setting of the book itself and the fusion of the holocaust horrors with Einstein’s story seems rather unavoidable; he was born to a German Jewish family. He was openly critical of Nazi Germany and given the toxic environment, he exiled himself to England, taking refuge to avoid a rumoured attempt at assassination by agents acting for the Nazi regime in Germany. It is believable that his secretary would have a tumultuous life too!



Reeta Ramamurthy Gupta is a columnist and bestselling biographer. She is credited with the internationally acclaimed Red Dot Experiment, a decadal six-nation study on how ‘culture impacts communication.’ A reading coach, you can find her on Instagram @OfficialReetaGupta

Bookstrapping: Mr. Einstein's Secretary by Matthew Reilly

Can a short story writer win the Nobel Prize For Literature?

 
Alice Munro made her way to heaven this last week, on 13th May 2024.

 
When the Nobel was conferred upon her, the common question was, ‘does a short story writer qualify for a Nobel’? A majority of readers may sheepishly confess that they do nurture a prejudice against short story writers. Alice Munro might’ve never bothered ; she nurtured her own stories, producing 14 volumes of them.

 
Take for instance ‘Wenlock’s Edge’, a story about a possessive older lover and a vulnerable young woman, who has to dine without her clothes, while reading books aloud to him. Disturbing facets of human behaviour and strange quirks define her short stories, which span the commonplace to the bizarre!

 
Here are our five #BookStrapping insights in the form of five of her finest collections of short stories:

 
1. Ever heard of the phrase ‘good riddance to bad rubbish’? I read this first in the short story ‘Love of a Good Woman.’ A story that examines what is wiser- should one keep secrets or divulge them, she goes on to say, ‘The night had seemed so long and then too short, because nothing had been decided.” Haven’t we all had nights like this? Can we always rely that all people in a given situation, will conclude in the same way?


2. ‘The View from Castle Rock’ is probably her most personal collection of short stories. She has often been referred to as a ‘regional writer’ borrowing from familiar settings in her home in Canada. In this collection, you find her establishing contrast between “those days” and “these days,” even as she writes ‘fiction’ that’s set in an autobiographical context. An early risk perhaps?


3. We cannot miss the compilation, ‘Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage’, which was released in 2001. A story from this compilation, ‘The Bear Came over the Mountain’, which spoke of Alzheimer’s disease, was made into a film titled ‘Away From Her’ in 2006.


4. The ten short stories featured in ‘Too Much Happiness’, are meaty to say the least. ‘Child’s Play’ may perhaps be the most disturbing one in this book. It talks about the cruelty that children can easily inflict on one another! The book also features a story about the life of Sophia Kovalevsky, a Russian mathematician, who struggled to receive the recognition she deserved. In the author’s words, ”She was an utter novelty, a delightful freak… Men whose brains were blowing old notions apart were still in thrall to women whose heads were full of nothing but the necessity of tight corsets, calling cards, and conversations that filled your throat with a kind of perfumed fog." 


5. ‘Dear Life’, another collection released in 2012, was intended to be her last. Her stories are everyday stories of everyday people- those whom we don’t expect to encounter in books. Remarkable stories like ‘Dolly’, talk about how dangerous it is to have ex-lovers come back into your life! Ha Ha!


Munro painted the canvas of literature fearlessly! Her great message, was that we render ourselves helpless, by losing our minds in the maze of consequences brought about by the decisions we make! The absolute necessity of making judicious decisions therefore, cannot be denied!



Reeta Ramamurthy Gupta is a columnist and bestselling biographer. She is credited with the internationally acclaimed Red Dot Experiment, a decadal six-nation study on how ‘culture impacts communication.’ A reading coach, you can find her on Instagram @OfficialReetaGupta

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