Penguin India acquires Rights for Rahul Bhattacharya’s Books
May 2012
We are delighted to present The Sly Company of People who Care and Pundits from Pakistan in a brand new look
Both his books, in a very attractive new look, will hit the market soon.
Since it was first published, The Sly Company of People Who Care, Rahul Bhattacharya's first work of fiction, has won the Hindu Literary Prize for Best Fiction 2011, it was shortlisted for the Man Asian Literary Prize 2011, and has just been shortlisted for the Commonwealth Book Prize 2012.
Pundits from Pakistan, an all-time cricket classic in a stunning new edition will be available with a new preface by the author, and new interesting photographs. Also, winner of the Crossword Award for Popular Books 2005.
Rahul Bhattacharya is the biggest new literary talent to come out of India in recent years. He was born in Bombay in 1979 and now currently stays in Delhi. He won great acclaim as a cricket writer – he has written in the Wisden magazine, Cricinfo etc and then wrote an outstanding first novel, The Sly Company of People Who Care
About the books
The Sly Company of People Who Care
When a young Indian journalist quits his job to take a year off in Guyana, he discovers a country of epic indolence, lush rainforests and decaying houses where an array of alluring characters, Indian and African, have made a new world.
Among the motley crowd of seasoned rogues and Samaritans, people trying to escape or accept their colonial legacies, he falls for Jan, a sexy ‘cooliegal’, who transports him to a new place—within himself and in the world. Acute and lyrical, The Sly Company of People Who Care is a quixotic journey in which dreams, destinies and desires cross and drift apart.
- ‘Quick, cool, astonishingly assured, it awakens with its landscapes and characters a Conradian sense of wonder’ PANKAJ MISHRA
- ‘Exuberant and often arresting . . . what a remarkable and exquisite world Bhattacharya has made’ THE NEW YORK TIMES
- ‘Bhattacharya’s understanding of displacement and drifting comes from a completely original place, and he has all of the humour and sharpness of the young Naipaul . . . This book, and this writer, are here to last’ INDIA TODAY
Pundits from Pakistan
In the spring of 2004, the Indian cricket team headed to Pakistan to play a historic series. The mood was tense with political provocations and security fears. But as the archrivals met on the field to play thrilling cricket, a rare spirit of bonhomie spread through the tour. From the markets of Lahore to the streets of Peshawar, ordinary Indians encountered the small courtesies and deeper friendships that would make the tour unforgettable.
Pundits from Pakistan brings vividly alive the magic of the game—the matches, the players, the cheering crowds—and chronicles an emotional and hopeful time, as witnessed by a young Indian discovering Pakistan. Funny, warm and superbly written, it is a classic of its kind.
- ‘One of the most entertaining and stylishly written pieces of non-fiction I’ve ever read’ -KAMILA SHAMSIE, NEWSLINE
- ‘A beautiful and brilliant work, the best cricket book I have encountered in many a long year’ -----PETER ROEBUCK
For an interview with the authors, excerpt requests, exclusive pictures, review copy please contact:
Diksha Wadhwa at +91 11 46131444/ 9811729886 or drop a mail at diksha.wadhwa@in.penguingroup.com
