Bibliofile

April Tidings
April is usually not this happening, with publishers waking up after their annual stocktaking, one eye already on their travel plans for the London book fair. But next month, Random House alone has two of its biggest releases ever, starting with Jhumpa Lahiri’s Unaccustomed Earth, followed by Salman Rushdie’s The Enchantress of Florence, of which we’ve already had a teaser in the form of Akbar’s Jodhaa. Not to be left behind, HarperCollins is releasing its most expensive acquisition of the year, Aravind Adiga’s The White Tiger.

Orange Glow
Anita Nair’s ambitious third novel, Mistress, has just made it to the Orange longlist, along with 19 other novels by women writers including Anne Enright’s The Gathering. But one wonders why a litprize set up to celebrate, among other things, "accessibility in women’s writing", should have publishers here scrambling for their weightiest tomes, as if being readable was somehow un-prizeworthy. This year, in fact, pop star Lily Allen is one of the four judges.

Muse’s Muse
Do muses have their own muse? Apparently yes, judging by Salman Rushdie’s former muse and ex Padma Lakshmi’s eye candy of a cookbook, which like all cookbooks nowadays comes with a literary gloss (they call it "a cookbook memoir" to distinguish it from the Neeta’s variety). To be launched within three months of Salman Rushdie’s ninth novel, Padma’s book of favourite recipes showcases photos of her favourite person from childhood onwards: herself!