New Book House
The street buzz is that Chiki Sarkar, who in a sudden move in April quit Penguin Random House as publisher, is soon to launch her own publishing firm. Apparently, there is a four-month cooling off period in her contract which ends in September. The talk is she is planning to start a new firm with a few investors (her father Aveek Sarkar, who held a 45% stake in Penguin before it merged with Random House, may be one of them) and not join an international biggie. At least three of the four other senior professionals who quit Penguin Random House along with Sarkar are likely to join the new venture and she has sent feelers to others. The question on everybody’s mind is: how many top authors, like say Amitav Ghosh, whom Chiki signed on, will she be able to lure away from Penguin?
A Shot Too Far
All of us remember the tale of William Tell, the Swiss folk hero who is forced to shoot an arrow through an apple placed on his son’s head. Now, a new adaptation of Rossini’s opera based on it in London’s Royal Opera House has run into trouble. A group of Austrian army officers force champagne down a woman’s throat, molest her and go on to strip her. The audience found the scene revolting, and booed the Italian director, Damiano Michieletto. But he justified it, saying it only exposed the brutality of the army of that time.
Coloured Ribbons
Two quick bits of news on awards. The Italian edition of William Dalrymple’s Return of a King (Il Rittorno di un Re) has won the 2015 Hemingway Prize. And Ramachandra Guha has won the Japanese Fukuoka Prize 2015.
