Portside

It’s been five years since self-styled education reformer Michelle Rhee left her job as head of the District of Columbia Public Schools under a cloud of bitterness and controversy, but she is still throwing shade over the Washington city school system.

The LDF, which comprises the Communist Party of India (Marxist), the Communist Party of India and nine other allied parties, gained over 20 extra seats over the 2011 election results in Kerala defeating the Congress Party and the ultra-right BJP. This was a victory to celebrate even though the Left Front continued to lose ground in West Bengal.

The Noise of Time, the new novel by Julian Barnes, is a fictionalized portrait of Dmitri Shostakovich, perhaps the most famous Russian composer of the Soviet era. Leslie Rieder, in this review, gives us a peek into the "utterly fascinating" tale Barnes has woven.