July 24: Westland Books’ imprint, Tranquebar, announced the release of a new novel by writer and publisher, Minakshi Thakur. Set in Delhi, Minakshi Thakur’s Grief Burns like Fever is a lyrical and deeply empathetic examination of life in the pandemic years. Evoking the surreal days of the second lockdown, the book introduces us to an unusual set of characters, including an ambulance driver and a nurse at a government-run hospital, a woman reevaluating her job and her marriage, and an orphan boy working at a doll factory, all of them seeking to navigate the ordinary in the most extraordinary times.
Sharing her thoughts, author Minaskhi Thakur says,
‘Using a global health crisis as its apocalyptic setting, Grief Burns Like Fever holds up a mirror to human society. Writing it during the second wave of Covid-19 became a way for me to cope with the isolation of the lockdown as well as the news of personal losses coming in every day. Several events described in the novel are based on true incidents. It was a cruel time that changed us all irrevocably. But it was also punctuated by small acts of kindness, which turn this into a tender story about love, hope and resilience.’
Grief Burns Like Fever is available for pre-orders on Amazon from 24 July 2026 and will be released across all major online and offline bookstores on 6 August 2026..
