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Of Love despite Other Demons

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  Review by Ronica Wahi   Tere Bina Jiya Jaaye Na By Parthasarthi Daas First published: August 27, 2015, BecomeShakespeare.com Pages: 122.  ISBN: 9789383952533 Tere Bina Jiya Jaaye Na (loosely translated, it means: “Can’t live without you”) by Parthasarthi Daas is a 2015 novel on the universally loved subject of love. As the title suggests, it revolves around two people who cannot survive without each other. This title is also the title of a popular Bollywood romantic song from the late 1970s. The haunting lyrics talk of the inability to breathe and the inability to cherish life without the beloved. The book similarly talks of the strong, undying love between its protagonists, Biplav and Aahuti; their love is of the sort that remains unaltered, whatever may be the challenges or the circumstances. The subtitle reads Love: A Force of Destiny.   It is destiny indeed that brings the two together – they meet in unromantic circumstances, such that falling in love in which may

A Death Row Inmate’s Story

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  Review by Ronica Wahi   Death Sentences By Michael Zimecki First published: May 11, 2014, Crime Wave Press. Kindle Edition Pages: 215.  ASIN: B00KALIXVW Death Sentences by Michael Zimecki was published in 2014; it is not late though to be writing a review on this one. For it is relevant still. It is the story of Peter Popovich, or “Pop” as he is mostly referred to, who is on Death Row. The narrative shifts between first and third person accounts as Pop directly addresses the reader and shows the manuscript he’s working on wherein he reveals the story of his life, respectively. Pop decided to tell his story for, as he says, the TV news didn’t cover most of what happened in the US – and as first person narrator, said of Pop, “I am writing this book in honor of his crimes.” This referring to self in the third person – something he had learnt as a recruit at Boot Camp – was a habit that “stuck with him”, as he reveals. This boot camp was also where he received something he