"To mull over a beautiful line while looking upon a beautiful painting is the sublime pleasure offered by Amitava Kumar's The Blue Book. This painted diary is a collage of the personal and the political, of terrifying news, the fleeting seasons, everyday pleasures, precious conversations, families and friendships—and on every page, the solace of art." — KIRAN DESAI
"A lovely homage to—and extension of—the tradition of writer-artists such as John Berger." — GEOFF DYER
"It's not good to read another person's diary. But Amitava Kumar makes the experience so intimate in The Blue Book that you don't feel guilty. You feel like it is your own." — GULZAR
"The Blue Book by Amitava Kumar, one of the most acclaimed novelists of contemporary times, is a landmark work of ‘self-writing.’" — Financial Express
"In Amitava Kumar’s hands, journaling is a steady account of the world around us, faintly tinged with melancholia and poignancy." Deccan Herald
"Kumar’s drawings and paintings exude a remarkable spontaneity and a purpose that words often fail to capture." Hindustan Times
"...what strikes one most about this slim volume is Kumar’s felicity with art." The Hindu
"Amitava Kumar's new book journals how our days have gone." Mint Lounge
"[With The Blue Book, Kumar] joins the pantheon of poets and writers who also painted: Derek Walcott, Elizabeth Bishop, Victor Hugo, Clarice Lispector, Herman Hesse, Federico Garcia Lorca, and, closer to home, Rabindranath Tagore. If his journals are a vehicle to the creation of a sense of selfhood, as it was for Sontag, his painting is a form of keeping a diary, as it was for Picasso." Outlook Magazine
"...an intimate record of the heart of a vibrant writer-artist, and will certainly serve as an inspiration to other writers and artists, beginners and seasoned ones alike." Frontline
Interview with The Telegraph (Kolkata)