This year I read two old books that have really impressed me. One is Flaubert's Sentimental Education which, I thought, was chaotic, occasionally boring, sometimes lacking a centre and yet always thought-provoking, stirring and beautifully written. The other is Vikram Chandra's Sacred Games. I wondered why I hadn't read it before. It combines great ambition, depth and yet in its compulsive readability, the colour cast of characters reads like pulp fiction. I think it might just be the greatest Indian novel of the last five years.
Next year my highlights from Penguin Books India are Pulitzer Prize winner and New Yorker staff writer, Katherine Boo's extraordinary book on the Mumbai slums called Behind the Beautiful Forevers. It is getting rave reviews from everyone, starting with Ram Guha to Amartya Sen. We will publish the book in February. In April, we are also publishing Pico Iyer's profound and deeply moving book, The Man Inside My Head, on being obsessed about Graham Greene. It is partly a memoir, partly one writer's homage to another, partly an extraordinary account of Greene's work.
Anjum Hasan is the one young writer from India that I would put all my money on. She has an utterly original vision of the world and real ambition. We publish her playful, clever book of short stories, Difficult Pleasures, in April as well.
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