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Bibliofile

<em>The Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother</em> has a home-grown rival: <em>Learn to Slap Your Child</em>

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Bibliofile
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Art Not For Sale

It’s a mystery why some literary prizes capture the popular imagination while others don’t. If only the prize money was a consideration, Pakistani debut novelist H.M. Naqvi’s Home Boy should be a top seller now that he’s won the Jaipur litfest’s sponsor DSC’s bumper $50,000 book prize. But apart from the 100 copies he sold in Jaipur, his climb into bestseller lists is less than satisfactory. His publisher HarperCollins ordered a modest reprint of 3,000 copies, which has yet to be sold out. In contrast, when Aravind Adiga won the Booker for The White Tiger, the same publisher ordered a reprint of 25,000 at one go. A gross underestimate, as it turned out—it sold a record 2,50,000 copies.

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Men Not Into Man

Whatever little buzz the Commonwealth book prize creates each year is missing this year presumably because there’s no book by an Indian on the shortlist. All frontrunners seem to be Canadians, including Room by Emma Donaghue, shortlisted for the last Booker prize as well. But then how do you explain why everyone’s ignoring the Man Asian shortlist, with two books by Indians on the list of five: Serious Men by Manu Joseph and The Thing About Thugs by Tabish Khair.

Mom With Fangs

The new world bestseller The Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother has a home-grown rival. A parenting book by a paediatrician, Sunil Vaid, with an unappetising title—Learn to Slap Your Child—claims to be the original creator of the Tiger Mom philosophy. “An Indian had warned 8 months ago what the whole world is so excitedly discussing today,” Dr Vaid writes, tongue nowhere in cheek.

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