Welcome to Kunzum’s March Playlist! Based on what our readers have been buying, loving and hopefully reading, we have curated another monthly listicle featuring March’s greatest and best-selling fiction titles. From finding your next favourite read to discovering books you might’ve seen floating around online, this list includes only the best from what has been popularly enjoyed and greatly recommended.
Maktub by Paulo Coelho
A stunning hardcover that wraps the glittering words of Brazilian lyricist and novelist, best known for his bestseller The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho’s Maktub, meaning ‘as it was written’, is a collection of short stories and parables derived from the author’s daily column of the same name. Published in 1994, finding renewed circulation in its latest hardback edition, this compendium of prose is an exemplar of Coehlo’s characteristic style– writing stories that spiritually journey through and navigate the human condition. Offering a range of perspectives, from that of the Buddha to talking snakes and old women climbing mountains, each narrative is a distinct key that unlocks a beautiful part of our mysterious universe. Each wisened tale is accompanied by beautifully line-drawn illustrations, offering inspiration and a crucial perspective to life and living.
Murder at the Bookstore by Sue Minix
It is quite literally about a murder at a bookstore. Fierce and highly productive crime thriller writer Jen is hot off the press with a bestselling title and a bad case of writer’s block, both of which she takes to her quaint hometown and its quaint-er Ravenous Readers bookshop. When the bookshop owner suddenly and, of course, mysteriously dies, our can’t-catch-a-break protagonist finds herself in the middle of a real whodunnit. A not-so-cosy mystery, and still one that you can curl up with, Minix gives our bookstore-obsessed hearts everything: inordinate coffee-guzzling, community-driven bookstores, feverish book-loving/reading and of course, murders.
The Bee Sting by Paul Murray
The Barnes family is unravelling in contemporary Ireland, with their idiosyncratic domestic drama pounding against the context of a world gripped by ecological disaster. Featuring Dickie, the patriarch and a failing car businessman, his wife Elaine who copes by selling off her jewellery, a teenage daughter in the throes of a toxic friendship and an apocalypse-prepping with a handyman. Murray’s Booker-shortlisted tragicomedy is at once profound, prosaic and off-the-rails insane. Exploring familial dysfunction, personal struggles and an uncertain future, The Bee Sting is a freewheeling delight that interrogates the realities of despair and denial.
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
Nabakov’s brilliant, scandalous, multiply banned and infinitely celebrated Lolita, (‘light of my life, fire of my loins’), is, if nothing else, a profound exploration of paedophilia and the role of manipulation, obsession and power in matters of love and desire. The novel begins with fictional psychologist Ray presenting the memoir of protagonist Humbert Humbert, an inmate who died awaiting his sentence, leaving behind a text that addresses the court and takes them to an honest and raw portrayal of the man’s inner life. A French emigree in America, Humbert is a deeply sophisticated, introspective and cultured man, walking about in resplendent respectability while covertly struggling with taboo sexual proclivities. Suffering from the traumatic memory of a childhood sweetheart who suddenly died, an event that left him sexually stunted and fated to be obsessed by 9 to 15-year-old nymphets, Humbert’s is a story of a transgressive relationship that borders on predation, abuse and all manner of provocation. Often referred to as an erotic novel couched as a novel of manners and vice versa, Lolita continues to capture the common imagination and is forever canonised as a book whose reputation precedes its text.
Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi (Sprayed Edge Edition)
With a beautiful hue sprayed along its edges, this edition of Kawaguchi’s viral hit, Before The Coffee Gets Cold, celebrates the heartwarming beauty of its story. In a Tokyo back alley, a quaint cafe hides a magical secret: time travel with a cup of coffee. Four visitors grapple with regret and longing. One seeks a final confrontation, another a forgotten letter. A third yearns to see a lost sibling, while a last wishes to meet a child they never had. But the journey comes with rules: one designated seat, stay within the cafe and return before the coffee gets cold. Will they find solace or face the unchangeable past? An original and moving meditation on the power of acceptance and the bittersweet beauty of letting go, this novel captures the unique and sustaining value of interpersonal connections, especially those that transcend time.
The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin
An unsurprising addition to March’s bestseller list and still a heartwarming one. We assume, making stern eye contact, that you’d read/ have read this brilliant sci-fi novel before binge-watching Netflix’s new adaptation. Portraying a chilling encounter with an alien civilization from a three-sun solar system – a chaotic world reflected in the real-life “three-body problem,” an unsolved mathematical puzzle in orbital mechanics, the book delves deeper into the character’s motivations and the societal impact of an impending invasion. Introduce yourself to the fierce mind of Liu Cixin and his fearfully accurate and deeply riveting science fiction.
Pick up any of these 6 Fiction Bestsellers from March 2024 from any Kunzum store or WhatsApp +91.8800200280 to order. Buy the book(s) and the coffee’s on us.