Book Wise?

With the Booker nod Aravind Adiga8217;s The White Tiger is all set to embark on a journey reserved only for a chosen few. For international acknowledgements translates to big sales, more so in the Kolkata market.

With the Booker Prize, Aravind Adiga8217;s The White Tiger may earn a boost in sales in the city. But its chequered performance in the Kolkata market is symptomatic of the city8217;s changing reading habit

With the Booker nod Aravind Adiga8217;s The White Tiger is all set to embark on a journey reserved only for a chosen few. For international acknowledgements translates to big sales, more so in the Kolkata market. Like its immediate predecessor, Kiran Desai8217;s The Inheritance of Loss, Adiga8217;s The White Tiger is also expected get a new lease of life post-Booker. 8220;From past experiences we can say that the demand for a Booker-winning book increases almost three times,8221; says Lipika Bhushan of Harper Collins India.

But The White Tiger8217;s story is a little different. 8220;This book received phenomenal response even before the award was announced. Considering the fact that it8217;s a debut novel, the success is noteworthy indeed,8221; claims Bhushan.

In cities like Bombay, Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad the book has been a success from the day it was launched, but Kolkata wasn8217;t as receptive to this new writer. 8220;The response to the book has been quite disappointing. Rave reviews from all and sundry did not translate into sales. However, with the Booker acknowledgement we expect sales to pick up,8221; claims Ashok Burman of Family Bookshop. So, while other metros of the country were quick to identify a quality work, Kolkata scored no brownie points on that account. 8220;That8217;s probably because of the city8217;s conservative nature. Kolkata readers tend to buy works of established authors more,8221; says Sumit Chowdhury of Oxford Bookstore.

The fact that the book was released with much-hyped releases like Amitav Ghosh8217;s Sea of Poppies and Jhumpa Lahiri8217;s Unaccustomed Earth, didn8217;t help its cause either. 8220;There were quite a few big releases by established writers like Ghosh and Lahiri this year, and all of them did exceedingly well in Kolkata. It started with the much-hyped launch of Unaccustomed Earth this April. We expected it to do well but its success is phenomenal. Then there was Chetan Bhagat8217;s The Three Mistakes of my Life, which is again a big seller,8221; claims Pooja Raja of Crossword Bookstore.

In the crowd of these biggies, The White Tiger was all but ignored in Kolkata. And the fate of the book here, seems to be symptomatic of city8217;s changing reading habit. 8220;In terms of region-wise sales the South comes first followed by the West. The Eastern region comes after them,8221; says Bhushan. Which is why a populist work like Chetan Bhagat8217;s The Three Mistakes of my Life is more likely to find more buyers than a White Tiger in a city which takes pride in her literary heritage. 8220;Chetan Bhagat is a nation wide phenomenon, so it would be wrong to generalise. But it won8217;t be wrong to say that Kolkata readers prefer popular fiction over niche works,8221; says Burman.

Yet, from today, these very bookstores will get bulk bookings for Adiga8217;s The White Tiger. The book will find pride place in the shelves of many Kolkata households. 8220;Everybody wants to own a Booker Prize-winning book. It becomes a matter of pride,8221; adds Burman.

A redemption which Adiga probably chooses to do without.