The man who played the "spaghetti-eating fanatic" in Terry Gilliam's Jabberwocky has been attempting to rewrite Homer. (The Babu needs to pause here in homage to the sheer effrontery of Christopher Logue, who has absolutely no knowledge of Ancient Greek.) "And yet..." writes Jim Lewis in Slate, "he is an extraordinary writer, the books are brilliant."

The protagonist of Jhumpa Lahiri's second book and debut novel, The Namesake, is called Gogol Ganguli. The Babu knows precious little about the book beyond this tiny nugget (the novel is to be released in September) but found himself warming to Lahiri immediately. He numbered at least one Stalin Sen and a Tolstoy Mukherji among his acquaintances. Tolstoy, indeed, suffered greatly. His second name was Tathagatha.