“This book is exquisitely and powerfully written – well deserving of the book hitting the top ten list in South America. Dilruba Z. Ara is an exhilarating writer with a gift for irony and a gentle, perceptive heart. A List of Offences is a gritty book, where beauty and strength come to life. The customs and food and smells of the city; We can imagine we are there, and we can share in the sights, the smells, and the challenges Daria had to experience. This story will make you smile yet cry and will touch you deeply. It will remind us of the problems other people go through and give us insight of other countries.”
Review by Barbara R. Cochran. Published in Pacific Book Review, 4346 Willow Glen Street, Calabasas, CA 93444, USA (Read more)
“A world-class book, by turns evocative, chilling, informative, humorous, inspiring and brave… Bangladesh has produced a great writer and a magical masterpiece of a book, which will come to be considered as one of the few classical novels born from the Indian subcontinent.”
Anna-Karin Herbert, Senior Lecturer in Psychology, Kalmar University, Sweden, News Today (Read more)
“Reading Dilruba Ara reminds me of three writers: Shahed Ali, John M. Synge, and James Joyce…”
Ghanim Samarrai, Author and Professor of English Literature, University of Sharjah, UAE (Read more)
“A List of Offences is a fantastic novel, very similar in style to The House of the Spirits and in spirit to Beyond the Blossoming Fields…In the case of Dilruba Ara, her novel takes place in Bangladesh, with the colours and scents of that country so brilliantly depicted; her writing makes us see and smell the essence of the land.”
Javier Rodríguez Álvarez, Madrid, Mis Critícas (Read the full review in Spanish)
“American readers that enjoy Pamuk, will enjoy Ara. Ara’s is a highly literary style, though less philosophical. Both authors give precise insights into, albeit different, Muslim cultures… Ara’s writing sustains the reader’s interest in three important ways…her extraordinary rich description…her deft and subtle humorous characterizations…the character of Daria is an intense study.”
Anthony Grooms, Author of Bombingham and Professor of Creative Writing, Kennesaw State University,USA The Chattahoochee Review (Read more)
“A novel which can be read in one sitting. Each line of it conveys a poignant sadness akin to Hamlet’s heart-rending grief. To me, Daria sometimes appeared as ‘Woman Hamlet’ and sometimes as the heroine of Ibsen’s Doll’s House…Daria is the archetype of Universal Woman. A wonderful book.”
Mahmuda Chowdhury Film and Literary Critic,Vice-President, Dhaka Reporters’Unity
“Daria’s mind has been voiced so naturally that it becomes one with the voices of numerous girls and women living in different parts of the subcontinent faced with the same kind of ordeal. Daria is not an individual, she represents a sea of faces – now clear, now jaded – belonging to the victims of circumstances, being tortured by the people they are part of”
Shagufta Yasmeen, Pakistan, Dawn(Read more)
“Reading Dilruba Z. Ara’s captivating book, one seems to be in the realm of South American magic realism. But this is another kind of realism, quite different, though just as sensual: oriental…A fascinating family saga, written in beautiful prose”
José Luis Muñoz, Novelist, Madrid, La Soledad del Corredor de Fondo (Read full review in Spanish) (external link)
“Dilruba is content to explore issues where a set morality has no place: Whose rights, and why? What is one’s birthright? Should all women aspire to be as self-sufficient as Bina? What might happen to families based on duty and filial affection if the self sees itself as distinct and separate, determined by no inherited creeds?… I am very pleased that A List will now be more available to British readers, for it comes over to me as a work that connects with very contemporary concerns in this nation – and not just to our own British Asian sensibilities and experiences, but to equivalent paths to the future that we all face taking in ways that have more to do with a shared culture than the more publicised differences.”
Nigel Wood, Literary Critic, Editor and Professor of English Literature, Loughborough University, London, Bangla Mirror (Read more)
“This remarkable author, Dilruba Ara, embraces the reader in a wonderfully rich cloth of people, places and narrative events magnificently woven with a language akin to that of the classical twentieth-century novel, yet original and empowered by spellbinding artfulness.”
Sven Strömqvist, Professor of Linguistics and Language Acquisition and Vice-Chancellor, Lund University, Sweden
“A List of Offences is remarkable for its sensuous prose and poetic, dreamlike style infused with breathtakingly beautiful images and keen insights into human nature”
Raicho Raichev Author, London (Read more)
“There are only a few books that one may like for a lifetime…The book we offer you today is one of those which will forever remain in the deepest place of your heart – an exotic story written with wonderful colour by Dilruba Z. Ara, a magical destination where all kinds of mischief take place…”
Dr Oswaldo Paz y Miño, Literary Critic, Uruguay and Ecuador, Espacio El Latino (Read more (English) (Spanish external link))
“A List of Offences is a wonderful book… the descriptions have a poetic flair. The words rolled off the pages like a song rolling from one’s lips. The characters and setting kept me reading long into the night. This book will be treasured by many.”
Robyn Opie Author, Australia
“Outstanding”
S. K. Rahim, Bangladesh Today (Read more)
“A List of Offences is a magical river that whispers ancient desires.”
Poppy Musuraki, Athens, Eleftherotypia (Read the whole interview in Greek)
“Dilruba Ara has an enchanting and mysterious way of reminiscing the strength and the courage inside every woman. This book is a kaleidoscope beyond the words that mute Daria. Brilliant must-read.”
Zarina Mia, Human Development Counsellor, South Africa
“Dilruba Ara is rapidly on her way to becoming an important name in contemporary literature. Her novel A List of Offences (2006) is a tour de force in storytelling… The description of the social and geographical milieu is a wonder of detail and expressive depiction. The pace is more akin to the great novels of the nineteenth century than the movie-inspired fast cuts of contemporary prose.”
Claes-Göran Holmberg, Literary Critic and Professor of Comparative Literature, Lund University, Sweden (Read more)
“Dilruba Ara has done justice to the cause of women when she gives a revolutionary end to a very ordinary…village girl. The writer, who lives in Sweden and is an accomplished painter, definitely leaves an imprint of her profession and the country she resides in on her work”
Mohsena Reza, Dhaka, Daily Star (Read more)
“A List of Offences is a travelogue of an Asian woman who travels in time and encounters adverse circumstances with silence and grief. Ara’s intense writing compels readers to accompany Daria during her emotional journey to explore herself and challenge things to get close to hope and determination.”
Sumita, Freelance Journalist, New Delhi, India
“A triumphant novel. I heartily congratulate Dilruba Z. Ara for enabling the English-speaking world to have access to this extraordinary story of a Bengali village girl’s life and struggle.”
Farid Ahmed Reza, London Literary Critic and Poet, Surma (Read more)
