ME & MY SHELF

Linguist, anthropologist and cultural activist G. N. Devy is best known as the mind behind the People's Linguistic Survey Of India, and the 2014 Padma Shri for his work with endangered tribes and languages. His latest book is Citizens Under Siege: Essays 2014–15 (Westland).

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The Songs of Innocence and Experience BY WILLIAM BLAKE
Penguin Classics, ₹400
Deeply humanistic and spiritual, the 'songs' in this book harken back to the Biblical idea of 'the primordial innocence and the loss of heaven' and contrasts the plight of children with London's rapid industrialization at the time. Though written in the simplest diction, these poems bring forth a profound spiritual quest inseparably intertwined with the politics of the day.

The Metamorphosis BY FRANZ KAFKA, Fingerprint! Publishing, ₹119
On the surface, The Metamorphosis reads as a fantasy of transformation, but it offers a scathing critique of industrialized society. The story of young Gregor Samsa, the protagonist, sparks many unsettling questions, and ends in tragedy, without sentiment and remorse. No other literary work of the 20th century has impacted modern literature the way this has.

The Plague
BY ALBERT CAMUS, Penguin, ₹312