Publish with Us

Follow Penguin

Follow Penguinsters

Follow Penguin Swadesh

© 2020 Penguin India

Catagory: Humour

Anxious People

The funny, touching and unpredictable No. 1 New York Times bestseller, now a major Netflix TV series

‘A brilliant and comforting read’ MATT HAIG
‘Funny, compassionate and wise. An absolute joy’ A.J. PEARCE
‘A surefooted insight into the absurdity, beauty and ache of life’ GUARDIAN
‘I laughed, I sobbed, I recommended it to literally everyone I know’ BUZZFEED
‘Captures the messy essence of being human’ WASHINGTON POST

From the 18 million copy internationally bestselling author of A Man Called Ove
_______

It’s New Year’s Eve and House Tricks estate agents are hosting an open viewing in an up-market apartment when an incompetent bank robber rushes in and politely takes everyone hostage.

For Anna-Lena and Roger, busy buying-up apartments to fill the hole in their marriage, it’s something else to talk about.

For Julia and Ro, panicky parents-to-be, it’s yet another worry.

Lonely bank manager Zara only came here for the view.

While 87-year-old grandmother Estelle seems rather pleased by the company . . .

As the police gather outside, the anxious strangers huddled within try to make the best of a very sticky situation – but could it be that they have a whole lot more in common than meets the eye?
_______

Readers are loving Anxious People!

‘Backman never disappoints . . . heartwarming and multi layered’ 5***** READER REVIEW

‘As always Backman manages to delight . . . a really satisfying ending that makes you feel better about the world’ 5***** READER REVIEW

‘A wonderfully unusual tale, told with flair and finesse that is so wonderful it is sure to cure everything that ails you. Don’t miss out on this beautiful book’ 5***** READER REVIEW

‘This novel is about humanity at its most raw and at its most wonderful and I LOVED it!’ 5***** READER REVIEW

The Thursday Murder Club

THE FIRST NOVEL IN THE RECORD-BREAKING, MILLION-COPY BESTSELLING THURSDAY MURDER CLUB SERIES BY RICHARD OSMAN

———-

‘Smart, compassionate, warm, moving and so VERY funny’ Marian Keyes
‘So smart and funny. Deplorably good’ Ian Rankin
‘Thrilling, moving, laugh-out-loud funny’ Mark Billingham

In a peaceful retirement village, four unlikely friends meet up once a week to investigate unsolved murders.

But when a brutal killing takes place on their very doorstep, the Thursday Murder Club find themselves in the middle of their first live case.

Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron might be pushing eighty but they still have a few tricks up their sleeves.

Can our unorthodox but brilliant gang catch the killer before it’s too late?

The Times Crime Book of the Month
Guardian Best Crime and Thrillers

———-

‘A warm, wise and witty warning never to underestimate the elderly’ Val McDermid

‘I completely fell in love with it’ Shari Lapena

‘This is properly brilliant. The pages fly and I can’t stop smiling’ Steve Cavanagh

‘Steeped in Agatha Christie joy’ Araminta Hall

‘Pure escapism’ Guardian

‘As gripping as it is funny’ Evening Standard

‘An exciting new talent in crime fiction’ Daily Mail

‘A witty and poignant tale’ Daily Telegraph

‘Funny and original’ Sun

Will Grayson, Will Grayson

The New York Times bestselling novel from John Green, the author of multi-million bestseller The Fault in Our Stars, and David Levithan, author of Nick and Nora’s Infinite Playlist.

———-

‘Funny, rude and original’ – New York Times Book Review

‘Will have readers simultaneously laughing, crying and singing at the top of their lungs’ – Kirkus Reviews

‘This novel has serious buzz’ – Entertainment Weekly

———-

One cold night, in a most unlikely corner of Chicago, Will Grayson crosses paths with . . . Will Grayson.

Two guys with the same name, running in two very different circles, suddenly find their lives going in new and unexpected directions, and culminating in epic turns-of-heart and the most fabulous musical ever to grace the high-school stage.

Told in alternating voices from two award-winning authors – John Green and David Levithan – this unique collaborative novel features a double helping of the heart and humour that has won both authors legions of fans.

An Abundance of Katherines

From the bestselling author of Turtles All the Way Down and The Fault in Their Stars, a beautiful tale of love, loss and not so fool proof mathematic equations.

When it comes to relationships, Colin Singleton’s type is girls named Katherine.

And when it comes to girls named Katherine, Colin is always getting dumped.

Nineteen times, to be exact.

On a road trip miles from home, this anagram-happy, washed-up child prodigy has ten thousand dollars in his pocket, a bloodthirsty feral hog on his trail, and an overweight Judge Judy-loving best friend riding shotgun – but no Katherines.

Colin is on a mission to prove The Theorem of Underlying Katherine Predictability, which he hopes will predict the future of any relationship, avenge Dumpees everywhere, and finally win him the girl.

Love, friendship, and a dead Austro-Hungarian archduke add up to surprising and heart-changing conclusions in this ingeniously layered comic novel about reinventing oneself.

The Library of hOles (New Box Set with 33 hOle Books!) Buy 30, Get 3 free!

Thousands of Indian kids have jumped into reading with a Duckbill hOle book!
Get all 33 books in the series in this unique Library of hOles, and make your child fall in love with books and stories. Recognizable by the hOle at the top corner of each book, these chapter books are for kids learning to read independently. They are full of fun stories, gorgeous illustrations and hOles!

Between You, Me and the Four Walls

The Social Butterfly is back with her signature wingbeat. The world may have moved at a rattling pace since her last outing but the lifestyles of Lahore’s literati, Dubai’s glitterati and London’s desi flutterati have more than kept pace. Earth-shattering events like wars, climate change, and the pandemic have nothing on the treachery of the maalish waali, Meghan Markle’s tiara and the mechanics of ‘sad make-up’. Spanning eight rollicking years from 2014 to 2021, Butterfly’s frank, funny diaries tell us how it is in the private lives of the haves and the have-mores.

Scandalously colourful and uniquely desi, the latest installment of the Butterfly series is delish.

Banaras Talkies (From the best-selling writer Satya Vyas)

A MUCH-LOVED CAMPUS NOVEL, SET IN BANARAS HINDU UNIVERSITY

WRITTEN BY THE WINNER OF THE SHRI DWARKA PRASAD AGARWAL AWARD 2018, AUTHOR OF DILLI DURBAAR, CHAURASI, BAAGHI BALLIA

Bhagwandas Hostel at Banaras Hindu University can be mistaken as being like any other college hostel, but that would be a gross error. For, among the corridors of BD Hostel roam never-before-seen characters: Suraj the narrator, whose goal is to woo a girl, any girl; Anurag De, for whom cricket is life, literally, and Jaivardhan, whose melancholia gets him to answer every query with ‘ghanta’.
Follow the adventures of the three friends and others as they navigate undergraduate life in one of India’s most vibrant colleges, plan to steal exam papers, struggle to speak to women, find friends in corridors lined with dirty linen, and forge lifelong bonds amid bad mess food.
First published in Hindi in 2015, Banaras Talkies has remained on the bestseller list since then. A slice-of-life novel, it captures college life with all its twists and turns. Written with the idiomatic flourish that is the hallmark of Banarasi colloquialism, this comic novel is one of India’s great coming-of-age novels.

Great Stories for All Time by Two Master Storytellers

A SPECIAL COLLECTOR’S ITEM WITH THE BEST OF THE TWO MOST-LOVED STORYTELLERS

This box set brings together for the first time two masters of storytelling, to offer readers the best variety of fiction in a single package! From humour to horror, romance to thriller, humour to sadness, and an entire spectrum of human emotions, these two books have it all. A perfect collection to adorn your shelf and to gift to loved ones.

The Best of Roald Dahl
A great selection of Dahl’s most-read stories from his bestsellers: Over to You, Someone Like You, Kiss Kiss and Switch Bitch. Hypnotized from the first sentence, you will remain spellbound as Roald Dahl unravels his fiendish fictions with their satisfying twist-in-the-tale finales, as he leads you through the dangers of gambling for high stakes over wine, the perils of being a vegetarian and the macabre consequences of a night-time seduction . . . This book is, quite simply, Roald Dahl at his sinister best.

The Best of Ruskin Bond
Experience the best of four decades of Ruskin Bond’s writing in one book. This consolidated anthology has selections from all of Ruskin’s major books and includes his classic novel, Delhi Is Not Far. Accompanied by an endearing collection of essays, beautiful excerpts from different stories, serene poems and short stories, this book finds a way to create a unique literary landscape.

The Unforgiving City and Other Stories

AN ECLECTIC COLLECTION OF STORIES BY ONE OF INDIA’S MOST EXCITING NEW WRITERS

From the Karnataka Sahitya Akademi winner Vasudhendra comes a powerful collection of stories that shock, move and amuse by turns. As the characters struggle to find their feet in a fast-changing India, they mirror our unspoken dilemmas, torn loyalties and the loss of innocence.

In the extremely popular ‘Red Parrot’, an innocuous image from childhood returns to haunt a man when he visits his idyllic hometown. In ‘Recession’, the desire for a child leads a couple down unexpected paths. In other stories, a young woman in love rethinks her future when buried family secrets are suddenly revealed; a boy learns that insomnia may be the symptom of something more ominous; lonely apartment residents discover the thrills and perils of social media.

Deftly crafted with gentle wit and a lightness of touch, each gripping story exposes the deepest contradictions of modern life. The fluid translation retains the flavour and nuances of the original Kannada, creating a rich reading experience.

FROM THE BOOK

‘The dance was called Paper Dance, where couples were asked to dance within the boundaries of a newspaper spread out on the floor. Stepping out of the boundary led to disqualification. As Devika was single, someone from the crowd stepped forward. It was Vinayak Kulakarni. . . . Devika sensed her partner’s hesitation. He would forget his steps the moment he touched her. His ears turned red and he refused to look into her eyes. His boisterous friends shouted to him from behind: “Hey, Kulki, come on, get closer.” But, the more she boldly held his waist and drew him nearer, the more he would shrink; he held on to her gingerly. Devika egged him on nonstop, eventually helping him break out of his shyness. By the time the newspaper size shrank to the size of a paper towel, they were still in the game and, finally, Devika won. That was when she whispered her mobile number in his ear.’

Karya

On the third day after the death of Bangaravva, a solemn procession making its way towards the graveyard encounters a strange obstacle. A blast of wind rises up in revolt, the embers flare and the sacred ritual fire falls to the ground. The ceremony is ruined because custom demands that the ritual fire never touch the ground.

What follows is chaos and confusion. Who will bear the blame for things going awry, and how might they be set right? The division between castes and communities comes to the fore as the panchayat struggles to pronounce justice.

A poetic work calling for change in our casteist society, Karya unfurls a kaleidoscope of perspectives. Studded with symbols drawn from nature and myth, this small but significant novel unfurls the politics and power embedded within a Dalit community.

error: Content is protected !!