The year resonated with several new voices, apart from Adiga and Hanif. They got a boost with publishers further widening the scope for new forms of writing. Amruta Patil’s Kari added to the growing strength of graphic novels in India and Manjula Padmanabhan’s Escape, her debut novel for adults, to the number of sci-fi. There was Karan Bajaj (Keep off the Grass), Anuja Chauhan (The Zoya Factor) and Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan (You are here). The first two books are going to be made into films. Blogger Madhavan’s book, on the other hand, failed to whip up much interest despite marketing overdrive. Chetan Bhagat’s The 3 Mistakes of my Life suffered a similar fate. Hello, a film based on his One Night at Call Centre flopped too.

“It’s been a year of some wonderful new writing, with our mass market list doing exceedingly well and several very topical non-fiction titles such as our books on Chandrayaan, on the Olympics and China, getting us attention,” says Karthika. Author-artist Manjula Padmanaban too feels that new forms of writing have been enjoying encouragement from publishers as well as a growing number of readers. She, however, wishes that “there could be a balance in the number of people reading high and popular literature”.

Amidst all the interest generated by English writers, regional literature has been making its presence felt with translations getting more support. “Titles from regional literature are found in bookstores now,” says Meera Godbole-Krishnamurthy of Zubaan. This apart, Penguin India made sure that bibliophiles get their dose of nostalgia by reprinting a number of old titles like Kamala Markandaya’s Nectar in a Sieve and Firdaus Kanga’s Trying to Grow.