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Bibliofile

From Neel Mukherjee to Rajdeep Sardesai, from the ’60s Calcutta to the election that changed India

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Bibliofile
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Last Lap Glory

Neel Mukherjee’s brilliant The Lives of Others, an unsettling tale of the ’60s Calcutta, has dislodged many heavyweights, like David Mitchell’s The Bone Clocks. The Booker is tougher this time as it includes books written in English from anywhere, including the US. Two Americans, Joshua Ferris and Karen Jay Fowler, have made it to the shortlist. The others are British, twice-nominated Ali Smith and former winner Howard Jacobson, and Australian Richard Flanagan. Praising the book, Outlook reviewer Anjana Basu said, “Violence and torture are constant undercurrents—and the tone for the book is set by the opening pages. We expect no light at the end of the dark tunnel and our exp­e­c­tations are fulfilled. Detonations of torture, fevered sex and fretful poetry are punctuated by all kinds of confrontations, petty or otherwise.” All the sudden attention will no doubt leave the soft-spoken and unassuming Neel a little bemused, as from now till the big Booker dinner on October 14, all the authors will be the toast of town (2012’s shortlisted author Jeet Thayil says he just loved it). Here’s hoping Neel makes it all the way.

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A Poll’s Entrails

Rajdeep Sardesai has finally settled on a title for his book, pretty straight and  simple: 2014—The Election That Changed India. The book has chapters on Narendra Modi, Rahul Gandhi, Arvind Kejriwal, the role of the media in these elections, the corporates involved with it and how critical technology was. “I’d like to believe this book is the first real inside story of an Indian election, and the characters who made it such a unique election. It aims to be a panoramic view of a changing Indian political environment,” says the former editor-in-chief and anchor of CNN-IBN.

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