Cakes And Gale
The small publisher’s darling, Amitav Ghosh’s catapulting to high celebrity life was not as painful as he expected it to be. For someone who confessed to surrendering to Penguin’s giant publicity machine "in fear and trembling", Amitav was clearly enjoying himself, whether it was holding the nearly 300 guests at his Delhi launch in thrall with his words, or signing books (an unexpected 110 hardback copies sold at the launch, an achievement of sorts, considering how hard it is to get guests out of the line for booze and snacks and into the line to get their books signed by the author). But book tours are not all fun and five-star luxury, as Amitav will no doubt discover before his arduous six-city tour—a relentless drill of five-star parties, campus and bookstore appearances and interviews—ends a month from now.