Bibliofile

It wasn’t Madonna, but certainly the mother, of all book launches for Roli’s picturebook, Delhi: The Emperor’s City—Rediscovering Chandni Chowk and its environs. Thanks, of course, to its author Vijay Goel. Besides the PM and the DPM, nearly all of Goel’s cabinet colleagues attended the lavish chaat-and-dinner party at Hotel Ashoka’s convention hall. With elaborate sets designed by theatre celeb Amir Raza Hussain, a laser show, dance recital, qawwalis, Goel’s show stole the limelight from his book. By the end, the over-pampered guests were beginning to wonder when free copies of his book would land up at their tables. But with a price tag of Rs 850, the publisher wasn’t taking chances: the only thing in short supply were its copies.

Goel’s cabinet colleague Arun Shourie, however, does not rely on such ostentation. He prefers, according to one publisher, to rely on his mailing list, which is apparently longer than anyone else’s in the publishing industry. It is the work of years of labour: culled from organisers of events he addressed.

Harvard philosophy graduate Abha Dawesar’s debut novel The Three of Us may have bombed, but her second novel’s been snapped up by no less than Alfred Knopf in the US. Penguin India paid a substantial advance to get hold of Indian rights.