Further Afield
Adrian Levy and Cathy Scott-Clark’s meticulously researched The Meadow (reviewed here) is a global hit. Their next book, The Burning Tower—to be published by Penguin—will be on 26/11. It will set inside Mumbai’s Taj Mahal hotel on those three fateful days, from 9.30 pm on November 26, 2008, to 6 pm on November 29. It will be told through real characters: waiters, chefs, businessmen, brokers, celebs, tourists and policemen. If the in-depth analysis in The Meadow is anything to go by, the authors are sure to come up with gripping, new tales from 26/11.
No Grey Areas
Mommy porn is suddenly the rage. The Fifty Shades trilogy—Grey, Freed, Darker—by E.L. James, TV executive and a mother of two, the sexually graphic tale about the torrid relationship between a young student and an older entrepreneur, has outsold the Harry Potter books (though one may put both in the fairy tale category). The craze has caught on in India, sales estimates are around a lakh copies. Move over chicklit, sterner stuff is here.
An End To Infamy
Outlook Hindi’s Bhasha Singh has come up with a winner with Adrishya Bharat (Invisible India), her seminal book in Hindi on manual scavengers. The book launch itself, presided over by Union rural development minister Jairam Ramesh, went on for over four hours as he engaged with activists working towards stopping the practice. Now, many policymakers and bureaucrats have been asked to come up with a time-bound plan to end manual scavenging.
