Publishing in India has grown tremendously in the seventy-five years since Independence. Although accurate figures are hard to come by, it’s estimated that the Indian book market is the 6th largest in the world by value, and growing. Textbook publishing for schools accounts for the largest number of titles that are sold in the country, followed by the higher education segment, with the most visible part of the industry, trade publishing or books for general readers, coming third. English-language books constitute the largest segment of the book trade in India.


Reviewed by: David Davidar in Conversation with GJV Prasad

The Taj Falaknuma, a 5-star hotel occupying the former palace of the Nizam of Hyderabad, advertises itself as a ‘jewel amongst the clouds’. Every day, groups of hotel guests and tourists are shepherded through the suites, banquet hall, ballroom and grand staircases which were once the property of the richest man in the world, built during an era when the sun shone brightly on the British Empire. The treasures are displayed by guides as relics of a gilded age, made solemn by the same passage through time which has deposited layers of historicity on the opulently ordinary sofas, beds, study desks and shower cabinets.


Reviewed by: Rishi Srinivas Iyengar
Chandana Dutta

Over the last two decades, Indian Writing in English translation has emerged as a flourishing field that has seen a steady rise in the translation of fiction and other forms of creative writing in almost all Indian languages. While there is much to cheer about, what is missing is the study of critical discourses and literary traditions in regional languages in translation. Additionally, with translated works from different Indian languages included in universities’ curricula and a favoured area of research in literary studies, the scarcity of critical material in translation is urgently felt.


Reviewed by: Mukul Chaturvedi
Upamanyu Chatterjee

Several years ago, Nilanjana S Roy had defined the current crop of Indian Writing in English novelists as a ‘Doon School-St. Stephens’ conspiracy’. It was an interesting but true observation since the writers who were popular at that time were all products of these elite institutions and were quite adept at imitating western culture and simultaneously wrote in a style that was quite polished and urban.


Reviewed by: Somdatta Mandal
Delshad Karanjia

In Teaching a Horse to Sing, Delshad Karanjia ventures on a journey of retelling ‘tales of uncommon sense’ from all around the world, a task that seems as fantastical as the title at first. To enter into this book of wit, wisdom, humour, and most of all, a deep appreciation for the art of storytelling, is to fall down a rabbit hole. Whimsical and fleeting alike, the stories collected in this book are a homage to popular tales that are both cultural and social, whispered across time and all over the world, in similar iterations, lending a universality that is tinged with the local every time a tale is read.


Reviewed by: Zahra Rizvi
Anuradha Roy

Anuradha Roy is one writer who always takes you by surprise. Each of her books has a story with an intensity that is rare. Each of her books is a joy to read. The Earth Spinner is one such tale. Indian women’s writing in English has successfully moved from the world of domesticity to the more complex world of emotions, ambitions, landscapes. A world that makes you think. A world that draws your attention to differences that determine, decipher, and help us deconstruct the existential discourse.


Reviewed by: Ranu Uniyal