Wednesday 6th February

Here's a link to an academic essay by PhD scholar ROSITTA JOSEPH about my 2008 novel ESCAPE, published in MUSE INDIA's Issue 47, Jan-Feb 2013. It's only the second academic article I've read about ESCAPE (the first one was by a Professor of English Literature in Tarragona, Spain; now a friend) and the first I've read by an Indian scholar. Unlike the reviews that came out, this article analyses the real-world social context of the book with some seriousness.

It's always a great relief to know that there ARE readers who notice minor details -- such as the "notes" from the Generals' publications -- and come to the correct associations and conclusions. But especially now, when I am writing the final chapters of the sequel ... yes. It's good.

Review of ESCAPE

This review, by RIMI B CHATTERJEE appeared in the American Book Review earlier this year. I wasn't able to link to it there but RBC has very kindly scanned the printed review, blogged it and then sent it to me. Here's a link. It's definitely the best review that ESCAPE has received so far but more than that, it's the kind of review that makes an author feel that some readers really DO make the effort to read all the way through a book. That is SO RARE ...

Vodafone Crossword Shortlist NEWS FLASH

-- MUCH to my amazement, ESCAPE has made it to this year's Vodafone Crossword shortlist. I am very glad, esp for my publisher Picador India, and my editor Shruti Debi, coz the book had pretty much vanished from sight after its release in November last year. So this is ... very NICE.

(next morning -- shocked and saddened by the loss of The Moon Walking One --)

Here's the list of the other contenders this year:

Salman Rushdie's 'The Enchantress of Florence'
Amitav Ghosh's 'Sea of Poppies'
Jhumpa Lahiri's 'Unaccustomed Earth'
Neel Mukherjee's 'Past Continuous'
Anuradha Roy's 'An Atlas of Impossible Longings'
Preeta Samarasan's 'Evening is the Whole Day'

-- but clicking the link above, at "shortlist" will yield the Crossword Bookstores website where there's much more information. Thanks are due to Zigzackly for posting the link via Twitter.

*REVIEW*REVIEW*REVIEW*

How nice, and what relief, a GOOD review -- not merely because it is positive towards the book, but because it allows me to feel that a dialogue has been established: A Humanist Plea, by Sumana Mukherjee, appearing in THE HINDU's excellent monthly supplement, The Literary Review. Given the extremely stepmotherly treatment meted out to literary pages in other leading newspapers, THE HINDU is to be warmly commended for its generous allotment of space.

In the same issue, but in the magazine section Ranvir Shah's interview with me appears with the title Streams of Subversiveness -- he very modestly omits to mention that the book launch to which he refers took place courtesy HIS foundation, Prakriti, at The Park's discotheque, PASHA (ref. my post of a few days ago). He asked the kind of questions that were fun to answer. There's also a photograph of me which makes me look like a friendly gargoyle -- ordinarily, I look like an UNfriendly one, right? -- which is no surprise because the photographer stood practically two inches away from the underside of my chin as he clicked away industriously. I keep wondering why no-one has informed the news-reporters of the world that in case they want to sell more copies of their newspapers, what they need is ATTRACTIVE pictures, and that even if their subjects are middle-aged grizzly bears such as me, it is far preferable to shoot from slightly above, rather than straight up the nostril. Maybe they need to carry around a pair of stilts? Or maybe I should just get the underside of my chin -- or chins, is perhaps what I should say -- tattooed with something too obscene to print in the newspapers? That'd show 'em! Hah.

EVENT*EVENT*EVENT

ESCAPE cover artwork
pic by DrEKSNarayanan

Three readings have been scheduled. I'll send out e-invitations to friends and family in the relevant cities but I've realized, after sending out the Delhi invites, that there are a number of friends whose e-addresses are mysteriously unavailable on my Gmail contact list. Hence this blog-post. Please feel free to circulate the information here to anyone who you think might be interested in attending one of the readings.

Here are the dates and venues (time details for Mad & Bom to be confirmed):

NEW DELHI: OM BOOKSHOP, MGF METROPOLITAN MALL, GURGAON
Friday, 21st November, at 6 p.m.

MADRAS: THE PARK HOTEL, Anna Salai, Chennai
Sunday, 30th November, (not sure of the time)

BOMBAY: CROSSWORD BOOKSTORE, KEMPS CORNER, MUMBAI
Thursday, 18th December (not sure of the time)

I'll read from the book and I suppose there will be a few moments in which to exchange pleasantries before and after. It may be fun. And then again, who knows? It may not. My plan is to read one whole chapter. It should take about 15 minutes but my friend Sunita tells me that people feeled cheated if they get anything less than 20 minutes. Really?? I need to know! At this moment I plan to read Chapter 17 which is a good in-between moment, involving a character I liked a lot (Windseeker), who doesn't reappear. But I'm open to suggestions, if anyone has some to offer.

There's ANOTHER event too -- over this weekend (i.e., 14th to the 16th). I'm going to Nepal, to attend the SOUTH ASIAN CARTOON CONGRESS organized by Nepal's HIMAL magazine. So I'll be out of e-range for the next couple of days, but I'm hoping to have something substantial to report when I get back on Sunday evening! It'll be my first visit ever to Nepal, and I'm looking forward to it. Annapurnaaaaaaaaah!

My New Book

Escape
Okay. I can no longer keep it hidden: my new book, entitled ESCAPE, published by Picador India, is due out in the first week of November. I don't know at what resolution this image will appear (I have yet to go back and dig up a larger scan of Alice Albinia's book, featured in the post just before this one -- her cover was transformed into a miniature by the time it uploaded), but if it's normal, then it should be possible to read the back-cover blurb.

My editor has forbidden me to say anything even faintly negative about the book/its cover/myself -- which means I pretty much have to cork down right away. Well I suppose I am allowed to say positive things -- in which case I will confess to being really and truly relieved that I wasn't asked to produce a cover because now I ... ummm ... I suppose if I continue in this vein I will say something negative about myself. Okay, I've just GOT to finish that statement (yes, Shruti? Do you grant me that?) -- I realize that with most of my previous books, either I produced a cover that was utterly self-effacing or I refused to get involved in the totally awful covers that the publishers produced -- I will NOT, in this context refer to the title of the book whose cover was created by Picador UK, because it STILL gives me nightmares ...

I am glad to say that I find the current cover practically perfect (like Mary Poppins). Of course there IS something, one tiny thing, that I dis... uhhhhh ... okay! I'll stop right here. *sound of whip being cracked in the distance*

And ...

I'd like to draw attention to the blog newly added to my list on the left -- 30-in-2005 -- lively, feisty, frequently updated. I should've done it some time ago, following my own desire to showcase any site I return to regularly but laziness usually wins out over any other impulse in my world.