Bibliofile

The Better Man?
The Man Asian Prize this year may well emerge the more prestigious literary award than the original Man Booker, judging by the three-judge panel. Writers themselves and all experienced in judging literary prizes, Adrienne Clarkson, Nicholas Jose and Pankaj Mishra are also determined not to dumb down the prize, putting literary worth over sheer readability. Among the five Asian novels shortlisted for the $10,000 prize are Siddharth Dhanvant Shanghvi’s forthcoming Lost Flamingoes of Bombay, Kaveri Nambisan’s The Story that Must Not be Told, Miguel Sujuco’s debut Ilustrado and 22 books-old Alfred A. Yuson’s The Music Child?. But the strongest contender is Brothers by influential Chinese writer Yu Hua.

Stranded Penguin
HarperCollins has bribed UK-based Indian novelist Jaishree Misra out of Penguin’s stable. But the price is a three-books-for-the-price-of-one deal, the first of which Misra’s already delivered: a whodunit about six schoolfriends caught up in a schoolmate’s murder. While three-book deals suit publishers, minimising their risk, authors fear that taking money for books as yet unconceived may trigger writer’s block. As Ruchir Joshi found out some years ago when he signed a two-book deal for a record advance.

Just for Kids
Who gets the kids? After the messy divorce, the other half of the Jaipur litfest is returning with a children’s literary festival. Bookaroo (www. bookaroo.in), "the first exclusive platform for children’s literature", will be held in Sanskriti Kendra Anand Gram on the edge of Delhi on Nov 19-20.