Bibliofile

Shades of Alchemy

Author and editor Manu Joseph's The Illicit Happiness of Strangers has caught the fancy of readers in Holland. The Dutch translation is eighth on the national bestseller list. It is fourth in fiction, the top three being E.L. James's 50 Shades of Gray, 50 Shades of Freed and 50 Shades Darker. There have been instances in the past too where European readers have warmed up to a book by Indian authors much more than folks here. A few years ago, Tarun Tejpal's debut novel The Alchemy of Desire made waves in France and went on to win the Le Prix Mille Pages award.

Mohan's Umbrella

Meet Mohan R.D., ‘the only non-American author to have written a completely American novel'. The first three pages of his book are certificates from Indian World Record, Unique World Records and World Amazing Records stating this achievement. The tagline of The X-Ray Man is ‘An Extraordinary Love Story under the Umbrella of an Emotional Rom­a­nce in the Vein of Mystery'. A few lines from its blurb: “Robin encounters Jennifer and tries to persuade her to give up prostitution. His real love, though, is Cleopatra. Charlie, a physic criminal, wants to marry Cleopatra and kills Robin. He turns up as a skeleton-ghost". The book is dedicated to Anna Hazare.

Spring Dust Cover

Penguin is going big with its Spring Fever Festival (Mar 15-24) with an open library of its popular books at Habitat Centre's Visual Arts Gallery in Delhi. In the evenings, big names from Penguin's catalogue like Shobhaa De, Ramachandra Guha, Gulzar, Mira Nair, Ruskin Bond and Vikram Seth will hold talks and discussions with book-lovers.