Bibliofile

Wonder why ambitious iwe, anxious to spot the quickest way to literary fame, have not yet discovered the graphic novel. Hitherto sniffed at as mere comicbooks, they’re now deemed the latest literary trend about to sweep a TV-bred world. Just look at Maus, the graphic novel about a mouse family in a Jewish ghetto during the World War II that Pantheon (a Random House imprint) published 15 years ago. Prescribed as a textbook for many US schools, sales have climbed to over a million copies. And in less than six months after her graphic novel, Persepolis—The Story of a Childhood, was released in US bookshops this year, author/illustrator Marjane Satrapi has become a celebrated literary star of the year, with her book figuring on the nyt’s yearly list of notable books and a forthcoming profile in the New Yorker.

How does it feel to be the subject of a 1,250-page literary tome and then again to have your secrets spilled by your wife in print? Ask Prem Seth, real-life model for A Suitable Boy. "Some day I’ll write my own version of my life," he insisted on his birthday bash-cum-launch party of wife Leila Seth’s On Balance.