Footfall Match
It’s raining litfests this weekend. The Hay Festival in Thiruvananthapuram (November 12-14) is hoping to cash in on the unusually rich literary climate in Kerala. But if last month’s Kovalam litfest is any indication, even shifting the 3-year-old litfest from a five-star hotel in Kovalam to the rambling Kanakakunnu Palace in the city didn’t draw more than 150 people at most. The Hay Festival, on the other hand, is expecting to increase the crowds by three-folds. If participants Vikram Seth, Shashi Tharoor and Simon Schama can’t draw in the Malayalis, the organisers have been wise enough to rope in musicians (Bob Geldof, Asima) and a few Malayalam writers whose books have been translated into English.
Pick Of Two Lists
The equally ambitious Mumbai litfest, Literature Live, is kicking off on the same day, November 12. With a city that boasts of writers that have immortalised the city like Salman Rushdie, Rohinton Mistry, Vikram Chandra and Suketu Mehta, Literature Live seems woefully short of star writers. Is that why debut novelist and the Hindu Best Fiction Award winner Manu Joseph listed at both litfests? It’s anyone’s guess which of the two litfests will draw more crowds, but the Mumbai organisers don’t seem too worried: after all, the metro sells more English language books than all of Kerala.
Beginner’s Pluck
Bibliofile has its gambling instinct nipped in the bud: the novel we were betting would win the DSC literature prize of $50,000—Daniyal Mueenuddin’s In Other Rooms, Other Wonders didn’t even make it to the shortlist!
