Celebrities, politicians, musicians and film icons will vie for bookshelf space in 2018 with a smorgasbord of titles that flit across genres and interests
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Satyajit Ray
Travails with the Alien (HarperCollins)
May 2018
Satyajit Ray was a master of science fiction writing who explored the genre through his creation, Professor Shonku. This book is a collection of such writings, including the script he wrote in the 1960s, based on a short story of his, for a science fiction film called The Alien. Egged on by Arthur C Clarke, who found the screenplay promising, Ray sent the script to a Hollywood agent, who represented Peter Sellers. Twenty years later, when Ray watched Steven Spielberg's films Close Encounters of the Third Kind and, later, E.T., he realised that they bore an uncanny resemblance to his script. A must-pick for Ray fans, this one.
Amish
Raavan: Orphan of Aryavarta (Westland/Amazon)
Fall 2018
After the soaring success of Scion of Ikshvaku (2015) and Sita: Warrior of Mithila (2017), this is the third book in the Ram Chandra series, which details Raavan's story from his childhood till the abduction of Sita.
Aabid Surti
Sufi (Penguin Random House)
July 2018
Sufi is a Kane and Abel-styled true crime story about two kids who grew up in Mumbai's notorious Dongri slum, the place where underworld biggies like Haji Mastan and Dawood Ibrahim emerged.
Vishal Bhardwaj
Nude (HarperCollins)
January 2018
A gentle sense of wonder and a subtle intrigue pull one into the poems in Nude by film director, writer, composer and producer, Vishal Bhardwaj. They are written in the original Hindustani alongside their English translation by Sukrita Paul Kumar. Such is the voice of this romantic poet whose poems pulsate with an intense passion for a yearning for love.
Shweta Bachchan Nanda
Paradise Towers (HarperCollins)
July 2018
Shweta Bachchan Nanda's debut is woven around the residents of Paradise Towers, an apartment complex in central Mumbai — a forbidden romance, an elopement, undercurrents of tension and an explosive Diwali celebration. Quirky and intimate, it promises to dazzle and deceive.
Anupam Arunachalam and Rajesh Nagulakonda
Ashoka: The Mauryan Emperor (Campfire)
January 2018
Based on historically attested sources on the life of Ashoka, this lavishly illustrated graphic novel portrays a life filled with intrigue, romance, adventure, bloodshed and an ultimate realisation that war is not the path to greatness and glory.
Devapriya Roy and Priya Kurian
Indira: A Graphic Biography of Indira Gandhi (Westland/Amazon)
January 2018
Part prose fiction and part graphic biography, this is an unusual and insightful take on the life and times of India's first — and only — woman prime minister.
Priyanka Chopra by Aseem Chhabra
From Miss India to Conquering the World (Rupa)
Undecided
This biography of Priyanka Chopra explores the life of a small-town, middle-class Indian girl, who through sheer hard work and determination won the Miss World beauty pageant, became the queen of Bollywood, and left her comfort zone to cross over into American popular culture, first as a pop singer and then as a Hollywood actor.
Nasreen Munni Kabir
Zakir Hussain: A Life in Music (HarperCollins)
January 2018
Nasreen Munni Kabir takes the reader through the life and times of Zakir Hussain, his early years of growing up in Mahim, his training from age four with his extraordinary father, and how his passion for music helped establish him as a world musician.
Ramachandra Guha
Gandhi: The Years that Changed the World (Penguin Random House)
Undecided
The second and final part to the most definitive bio of MK Gandhi, this title starts from the day he left South Africa to return to India, and takes the reader through the freedom struggle to Independence, the Partition, and Gandhi's assassination. This is touted as the most ambitious and integral book on Mahatma Gandhi.
Chidanand Rajghatta
Gauri Lankesh and the Age of Unreason (Westland/Amazon)
February 2018
It's an intimate biography of Gauri Lankesh by her close friend and former husband, Chidanand Rajghatta. Gauri and the author studied together, learnt about their community and its ideological moorings and contradictions, and stepped into the world of journalism together.
Boria Majumdar
Eleven Gods and a Billion Indians (Simon & Schuster)
Undecided
The book goes deep into every Indian cricket tour since 1886 — taking the reader backstage to when India played its first test in 1932, and bringing the story forward to the more contemporary IPL — to provide a nuanced understanding of the evolution and maturity of
the game.
TM Krishna
Reshaping Art (Aleph)
Undecided
Known for his attempts to break free from the Carnatic mould, TM Krishna's title takes the reader through his journey of understanding what art means to different groups of people and the diverse and similar ways in which we create and enjoy it. He questions the caste, class and gender imbalance that pervades most forms of art.
Shilpa Shetty Kundra
The Diary of a Domestic Diva (Penguin Random House)
Undecided
After penning the bestselling title, The Great Indian Diet, the Bollywood actor is ready with another book for budding chefs and households.
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