New Delhi, July 17: There was a time, not so long ago, when a visit to a Delhi bookshop to browse its section of Indian literature would be a somewhat depressing experience. There would a handful of stellar stand-out names, of course; Salman Rushdie, Amitav Ghosh and one or two others. But the collection would be a half-hearted affair, seemingly there more out of duty than joy, and usually it would be hidden away at the back of the shop.
“Now, that has all completely changed,” laughs V K Karthika, publisher and chief editor of HarperCollins India. “Now those books are at the front of the shop. What’s more, they’re actually the books you want to read, rather than the books you read because you feel you should.”
For more than a decade, a period bookended by Arundhati Roy’s Booker prize success in 1997 with The God of Small Things and Aravind Adiga’s similar achievement last year, India has been enjoying an English language literary boom.
A newly buoyant middle-class, better travelled, more curious and with more disposable income, has been devouring books like never before. Almost every year now it appears that there is a new trend – pulp fiction one year, chick-lit “sari fiction” the next – as Indian publishers find new ways to tap into the market and reach out to more readers.
–Agencies