PRESS RELEASE

In a major announcement, Penguin Random House India today said that it has acquired Hind Pocket Books, one of the oldest and most respected Hindi language publishers in the country.

Established in 1958, the highly regarded Hind Pocket Books are widely considered as pioneers in publishing Hindi and Urdu paperbacks in India, and have an impressive list of critically acclaimed and commercially successful titles. They have published some of the most renowned authors from the subcontinent and across the world, including Amrita Pritam, Shivani, Acharya Chatursen, Gulshan Nanda, Narendra Kohli, Khushwant Singh, R K Narayan, Dr Radhakrishnan, Dominique Lapierre, Osho, Thich Nhat Hanh, Ruzbeh Bharucha, Wayne Dyer, to name a few, and their titles and authors have won several prestigious awards, including the Nobel Prize, the Sahitya Akademi Awards, and the Jnanpith Award.

The acquisition of Hind Pocket Books will build further on Penguin Random House India’s presence in local language publishing, to which it has been committed for over a decade. Penguin began its Hindi publishing programme in India in 2005, and has built a significant catalogue of acclaimed titles over the years.

Nandan Jha, Senior Vice President Penguin Random House India will in his expanded role take on the added portfolio of building the Indian language publishing programme, in addition to heading sales and product for the company. Vaishali Mathur, previously responsible for Indian Language Publishing and Rights at Penguin Random House India will with immediate effect be Editor-in-Chief of Hind Pocket Books,, and will also continue to build her English language publishing programme.

Markus Dohle, Chef Executive Officer Penguin Random House said, “We are thrilled to welcome Hind Pocket Books to the Penguin Random House global family of publishers. Our operations in India have been a success story for us, and this acquisition represents our commitment to expand our local-language publishing as we continue to implement our global strategy of growing in our key markets such as India. I congratulate our Penguin Random House India CEO Gaurav Shrinagesh, and I thank Mr. Shekhar Malhotra for selecting our team to further build on his iconic publishing house and great successes.”

Shekhar Malhotra, Managing Director Hind Pocket Books stated, “It is a great honour for us that this pioneering legacy is now in the reputed hands of Penguin Random House India. The Hind Pocket Books Group has nurtured some of the best local language publishing across decades, making available quality literature all over the country with its motto: Books for the Millions. In 1956, my father, D.N. Malhotra, founder of Hind Pocket Books, met with Sir Allen Lane (founder, Penguin Books), the year Penguin was celebrating its 21st anniversary, and here began a great association between two imminent visionaries. It is only fitting that today our company chooses to hand over its legacy to Penguin Random House India, under the inspired leadership of Markus Dohle and Gaurav Shrinagesh, who will build on this remarkable publishing programme and bring to the forefront our rich cultural heritage of literature and the arts.”

Gaurav Shrinagesh, Chief Executive Officer Penguin Random House India said, “This is a landmark acquisition for Penguin Random House India, and reiterates our commitment and passion to grow publishing and readership in the region. Hind Pocket Books is a cultural icon and we are honoured to have been chosen by Mr. Shekhar Malhotra to continue the strong legacy his father and he have built. We are delighted that Mr. Malhotra will be advising our team over the course of the next twelve months, as this will allow us to gain from his rich experience to further build a platform for original language publishing and translations.”

About Penguin Random House India
Penguin Random House India is a subsidiary of Penguin Random House, the world’s largest trade Publisher.

Penguin Random House India has been publishing in India for over thirty years, and publishes over three hundred newly acquired titles every year, with an active backlist of over four thousand titles. With a strong fiction and non-fiction list, it publishes across every segment including biography, travel, business, politics, history, religion and philosophy, lifestyle, cookery, health and fitness, sports and leisure, visual books and children’s books. The children’s titles are published under the Puffin imprint.

Penguin Random House India’s illustrious list includes Booker Prize-winning novels and winners of virtually every major literary prize, including the Nobel Prize, the Magsaysay Award, the Jnanpith Award, the Sahitya Akademi Award and the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. Several of Penguin Random House india’s authors are also recipients of the Bharat Ratna and the Padma Vibhushan, India’s highest civilian honours.

Penguin Random House India is also the exclusive distribution partner for several leading local and international publishing houses in India.

About Hind Pocket Books
Hind Pocket Books Group was established in 1958 and has published in Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi, Malayalam and English in India. In 1959 a set of ten paperbacks were published in Hindi for the first time, marking a major breakthrough in Indian Publishing. Hind Pocket Books is the umbrella company for a host of imprints which publish books that cater to the needs of different segments of society and specializations.

The Gharelu Library Yojana was pioneered by Hind Pocket Books by introducing the first ever mail order book club in India, which at its pinnacle had half a million members across the country. Over the years the publishing house has had the privilege to publish great dignitaries including S Radhakrishnan, second President of India.

The dominant genre has been literary fiction. Under General books, they also publish Spirituality, Self-help, Health, Poetry, Biographies, and translations of international titles. Their current imprints include Clarion Books, Global Business Press, Saraswati Press, Professional Managers Library and Mainstreet.

Jawahar Lal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of independent India said, “I am very happy at the success of Hind Pocket Books because not only are the books economical to buy but have been published very nicely and in attractive formats. I am sure these books will be successful and lots of people will be encouraged to buy these books.”

“It is important that the masses get beautiful books and economical prices written by authors and intellectuals. I am really happy to see that Hind Pocket Books has been doing such noble work for years.” – said Indira Gandhi, former Prime Minister of India

For more details contact Hemali Sodhi, Senior Vice President Marketing and Corporate Communications hsodhi@penguinrandomhouse.in

PRESS RELEASE

Publishing on September 1, 2018

A book for our times, The Rabbit and the Squirrel is the unforgettable story of an unlikely friendship between a penniless bunny and an heiress squirrel. When married off to a wealthy boar, little does the feisty Squirrel imagine that she will long most for the free-spirited hours spent with her old friend, the Rabbit, a dropout with a genius for fun. But even as their fates branch away from each other – the Squirrel drifts from domestic life while the Rabbit enlists with a monastery – the heartbreaking coda of this love story is a meditation on the enduring nature of friendship. For anyone who has been in love, and wondered what it all meant in the final analysis, this fable will hold a mirror to their heart.

Accompanied with glorious full-colour illustrations by bestselling Swedish author and artist Stina Virsen, The Rabbit and the Squirrel is a sharp, whimsical depiction of urban society, capturing the angst, yearnings and loneliness of modern life. Witty and absurd, with its private air of enchantment, The Rabbit and the Squirrel is impossible to categorize – at once contemporary and timeless, from a writer acutely alert to the dark surprises of the human heart. For the reader, this book, like the best of books, ends too soon, leaving a fine ache in its wake.

‘I wrote The Rabbit & the Squirrel five years ago, as a gift of love for someone. I never thought it would see light of day – it’s publication is a sweet, divine accident,’ said Shanghvi. ‘Hemali Sodhi worked closely to bring The Last Song of Dusk to its readers; I’m absurdly lucky that she remains a great friend and ally to me, and to this book, as well.’

Added Hemali Sodhi, Senior Vice President Penguin Random House ‘An achingly beautiful and heartbreaking modern fable, it’s hard not to fall in love with the powerful simplicity of The Rabbit and the Squirrel, and it’s a book you keep wanting to return to. We at Penguin Random House are delighted to be publishing this exquisite book which marks Siddharth Dhanvant Shanghvi’s triumphant return as an author.’

About the author and the Illustrator
Siddharth Dhanvant Shanghvi’s debut novel, The Last Song of Dusk, won the Betty Trask Award (UK), the Premio Grinzane Cavour (Italy), and was nominated for the IMPAC Prize (Ireland). Translated into sixteen languages, The Last Song of Dusk was an international bestseller. Shanghvi’s second novel, The Lost Flamingoes of Bombay, was shortlisted for the Man Asian Literary Prize, 2008. He lives in north Goa, where he serves as honorary director for a not-for-profit arts foundation.

Stina Wirsen: Bestselling writer and acclaimed artist, Wirsen has won the Expressen’s Heffaklump Award for children’s literature; the Elsa Beskow Plaque; Nordiska Tecknare’s Award; Svenska Tecknare’s Kolla! Award. Wirsen lives and works out of Stockholm.

For publicity enquiries and further information please contact
Piya Kapur
E:pkapur@penguinrandomhouse.in

We are delighted to announce that Penguin Random House India will be publishing Heart: A History by Sandeep Jauhar, the bestselling author of Intern and Doctored, in September 2018. Heart: A History is a doctor’s inspiring obsession with the heart, seamlessly combining history, gripping scenes from the operating theatre and a moving personal story. It’s the extraordinary tale of the very thing that makes us tick.

‘Heart: A History merges technical and scientific expertise with humanity, compassion and a keen understanding of relationships. Jauhar’s critical eye, his extraordinary ability to simplify the complexities of life and death, the sheer empathy with which he puts forth his argument – all of these moved me. We do not live in an easy age – politically, environmentally, culturally or socially – and writers like Jauhar, with reason, insight and grace, lend us the capacity to look inwards, rather than outwards, to unravel the mysteries of the human heart before unravelling the world.’ – Manasi Subramaniam, Senior Commissioning Editor

The spark of life, fount of emotion, house of the soul – the heart lies at the centre of every facet of our existence. It’s so bound up in our deepest feelings that it can physically change shape when we experience emotional trauma.

For centuries, the human heart seemed beyond our understanding: an inscrutable shuddering mass that was somehow the driver of emotion and the seat of the soul. As the cardiologist and bestselling author Sandeep Jauhar shows in Heart: A History, it was only recently that we demolished age-old taboos and devised the transformative procedures that have changed the way we live.

Deftly alternating between key historical episodes and his own work, combining his family’s own moving history of heart disease with gripping scenes from the operating theatre, Jauhar tells the colourful and little-known story of the doctors who risked their careers and the patients who risked their lives to know and heal our most vital organ. He introduces us to Daniel Hale Williams, the African American doctor who performed the world’s first open heart surgery in Gilded Age Chicago. We meet C. Walton Lillehei, who connected a patient’s circulatory system to a healthy donor’s, paving the way for the heart-lung machine. And we encounter Wilson Greatbatch, who saved millions by inventing the pacemaker―by accident. Jauhar deftly braids these tales of discovery, hubris, and sorrow with moving accounts of his family’s history of heart ailments and the patients he’s treated over many years. He also confronts the limits of medical technology, arguing that future progress will depend more on how we choose to live than on the devices we invent.

Affecting, engaging, and beautifully written, Heart: A History takes the full measure of the only organ that can move itself.

Sandeep Jauhar is director of the Heart Failure Program at Long Island Jewish Medical Center. He is the New York Times bestselling author of two medical memoirs and a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times. His first book, Intern: A Doctor’s Initiation was optioned by NBC for a dramatic television series. He lives on Long Island with his wife and their two children.

PRAISE FOR SANDEEP JAUHAR

Doctored: The Disillusionment of an American Physician

‘The narrative is gripping, and the writing is marvellous.’ – Siddhartha Mukherjee, author of The Emperor of All Maladies and Gene

‘An extraordinary, brave and even shocking document.’ – New York Times

‘In this absorbing memoir-cum-analysis, Sandeep Jauhar traces his years as a fledgling cardiologist against the backdrop of a healthcare system in peril… An impassioned call to action.’ – Nature

‘Highly engaging and disarmingly candid… Dr Jauhar does a service by describing eloquently the excesses and dysfunctions of patient care and the systemic distortions responsible for them.’ –Wall Street Journal

‘Bold and fascinating … [Jauhar] interweaves his personal story as well as anecdotes about his patients into a meticulously researched and painfully honest account… This beautifully written and unsparing memoir puts a human face on the vast, dysfunctional system in which patients and clinicians alike are now entangled.’ – Boston Globe

Intern: A Doctor’s Initiation

‘In Jauhar’s wise memoir of his two-year ordeal of doubt and sleep deprivation at a New York hospital, he takes readers to the heart of every young physician’s hardest test: to become a doctor yet remain a human being.’ – Time

‘Brutally frank… The inside look at the workings of the medical internship system is fascinating.’ – New York Times

‘A vivid portrait of the culture of a New York City hospital, with its demanding hierarchy and sometimes indifferent cruelty.’ – New York Times Book Review

‘Very few books can make you laugh and cry at the same time. This is one of them… [Jauhar] takes us on a wondrous journey through one of the most difficult years of his life.’ – Sanjay Gupta, CNN medical correspondent and author of Chasing Life

For more details please write to vtanwar@penguinrandomhouse.in or call Varun at +91-9910201553

PRESS RELEASE

Releasing: 23 April 2018 ONLY ON FLIPKART

20 April, 2018: Puffin India is thrilled to partner with Flipkart and UNESCO New Delhi Cluster Office for the release of a new edition of The Puffin book of Folktales, this World Book and Copyright Day. The book featuring stories by some of the most prestigious authors like Ruskin Bond, Sudha Murty, Devdutt Pattanaik and Paro Anand brings to life India’s glorious cultural heritage in all its richness, along with generous doses of fun. This low-priced edition has been especially curated for World Book and Copyright Day to make the stories accessible to readers and book lovers everywhere.

Sohini Mitra, Associate Publisher, Puffin (Penguin Random House India) says, ‘In keeping with the ethos of World Book Day which celebrates stories, books and the love for reading, we are delighted to bring to our readers an exquisite collection of folktales by India’s leading authors. The Puffin Book of Folktales features delightful stories and is available in an affordable paperback edition. We are thrilled to be partnering with UNESCO and Flipkart on this wonderful initiative! Our vision is to nurture and spread the joy of reading, and make books and stories accessible to one and all.’

Nishit Garg, Senior Director of General Merchandise, who also heads books at Flipkart says, ‘Books are the most integral and joyful part of growing up. It is in fairytales that we begin to see and chase our first dreams. We are glad to have partnered with Penguin to bring these folk tales book exclusively on Flipkart. We are delighted to be acknowledged by UNESCO for this endeavor. On this World Book Day, we hope to bring every child closer to the world of dreams and possibilities by encouraging them to read.”’

Ms Junhi Han, Sector Head and Programme Specialist for Culture, says “UNESCO is happy to support this wonderful book of folktales. It’s a delightful read for both children and adults. A collection of folktales such as this entertains and fascinates, encourages reading and listening among children, and lets them discover and rediscover India’s rich oral heritage. Penguin’s initiative to price it so reasonable, giving an opportunity to a wide section of people to enjoy the book is highly appreciated.”

About the Book

Ten timeless tales from India’s finest writers
Explore an exciting and beautiful underwater world with Panna. Watch the little blue bird Podna fight a mighty king for his little brown Podni. Join Lord Ganesha on his quest for a pot of kheer. Read about lovelorn Lord Surya pining for his Harshringar, leaving the world in darkness. Help the dove get her egg back.

This is a motley treasury of ten heart-warming folktales by master storytellers Ruskin Bond, Sudha Murty, Devdutt Pattanaik, Kamala Das, Paro Anand and many others, with each author adding their own special touch.

A delightful book, it brings to life India’s glorious cultural heritage in all its richness, along with generous doses of fun. Truly, a collector’s item!

About the Authors

Sudha Murty is a social activist, popular author and chairperson of the Infosys Foundation. She has written many short stories and four books for children. Two of her works, How I Taught My Grandmother to Read and Other Stories and Grandma’s Bag of Stories, are Puffin bestsellers.

Manjula Padmanabhan is an author, playwright and cartoonist. Her books include Getting There, a quirky travel memoir; Harvest, winner of the 1997 Onassis Prize for theatre; Escape, a dark adventure novel; and two collections featuring her fuzzy-haired comic-strip character Suki.

Paro Anand can’t stop writing, and has written twenty-three books so far, for children, young adults and adults. She is a world record holder for helping children make the World’s Longest Newspaper. She has performed her stories in many places. Her work has been listed on the IBBY Honor List. You can catch her in action at www.avantgardediaries.com and www.paroanand.com.

Musharraf Ali Farooqi is an author, novelist and translator. His children’s fiction includes a picture book, The Cobbler’s Holiday or Why Ants Don’t Wear Shoes, and the collection The Amazing Moustaches of Moochhander the Iron Man and Other Stories. He is also the author of the illustrated novel Rabbit Rap. You can visit him at www.mafarooqi.com.

Devdutt Pattanaik loves to write, illustrate and lecture on the relevance of mythology in modern times. He has, since 1996, written over forty books and 700 columns for adults and children. He believes that stories are like chocolate Eclairs: you chew on the outside-the story-till you get to the soft sweetness inside-the idea. To know more about him, visit www.devdutt.com.

Shashi Deshpande started writing children’s stories for her two young sons. Novelist and short story writer, she is the author of four children’s books and eleven novels, out of which That Long Silence won the Sahitya Akademi Award. Her writing career began in 1970 with short stories, of which several volumes have been published.

Ruskin Bond has written over 500 short stories, essays and novellas, and more than forty books for children. His first novel, The Room on the Roof, was written when he was seventeen. He has received numerous awards, including the Padma Shri and the Sahitya Akademi’s Bal Sahitya Puraskar.

A.K. Ramanujan was an award-winning translator and poet, whose works have been widely published and anthologized. These include, among others, Hymns for the Drowning, Speaking of Siva and Folktales from India.

Meera Uberoi wrote poems and stories for children, including Leadership Secrets from the Mahabharata, Tales from the Panchatantra, Lord Ganesha’s Feast of Laughter and Classic Indian Tales for Children.

Kamala Das was widely known for her poetry, prose and columns, and immensely admired for the sensitivity with which she portrayed human emotions. Panna was her first children’s book in English. Her works include The Sirens, Summer in Calcutta and her autobiography, My Story.

For more information, review copies please email Piya Kapur at Pkapur@penguinrandomhouse.in

PRESS RELEASE

NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE, RAAZI

Penguin is delighted to announce the publication of Calling Shemat by Harinder Sikka. It is the extraordinary story of an ordinary girl who transforms into a deadly spy driven by the desire to fulfill her father’s wishes and extreme national fervour. A gripping saga, this novel is a testament to all those heroes of war who didn’t care about recognition or glory.

About the book:
The year is 1971
Tension is brewing between India and Pakistan
One secret could change the course of history . . .
It’s now up to her

When a young college-going Kashmiri girl, Sehmat, gets to know her dying father’s last wish, she can do little but surrender to his passion and patriotism and follow the path he has so painstakingly laid out. It is the beginning of her transformation from an ordinary girl into a deadly spy.

She’s then married off to the son of a well-connected Pakistani general, and her mission is to regularly pass information to the Indian intelligence. Something she does with extreme courage and bravado, till she stumbles on information that could destroy the naval might of her beloved country.

Inspired from real events, Calling Sehmat . . . is an espionage thriller that brings to life the story of this unsung heroine of war.

About the author:
Harinder S. Sikka is currently the group director, strategic business, Piramal Group. After graduating from Delhi University, he joined the Indian Navy. He was commissioned in January 1981 and took premature retirement in 1993 as a Lieutenant Commander. He recently produced a film, Nanak Shah Fakir, which won acclaim at the Cannes, Toronto and Los Angeles international film festivals. The film won three national awards including the Nargis Dutt Award for best feature film on national integration.

Calling Sehmat is his second book and is being made into a film, Raazi, by Meghna Gulzar, scheduled for release in May 2018. Sikka lives in Delhi with his family.

Editor’s Statement: ‘This book is an extraordinary spy story that talks about the grit and determination of a young woman to save her country (India) during the 1971 war with Pakistan. It’s also poignant in its portrayal of the characters involved in the war showing the more human side of people and the choices they make—proving that heroes are not different people but they choose to do things differently.’ says Vaishali Mathur, Executive Editor and Head Rights and Language Publishing.

Author’s Statement: ‘I felt very strongly that Sehmat’s story needed to be told. Her amazing courage and fortitude are what need to be celebrated. I’m glad that the film and the book are coming out within short span of each other and each will in its own way tell this exceptional story.’ says Harinder Sikka

For media queries please write to Neha Punj at npunj@penguinrandomhouse.in

PRESS RELEASE

After her bestselling memoir Songs of Blood and Sword, and her highly acclaimed debut novel The Shadow of the Crescent Moon (which was longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction), Fatima Bhutto is back with an explosive new work of fiction: The Runaways.

From the slums of Karachi to the nightlife of London, from the dockyards of Portsmouth to the deserts of Mosul, this sweeping novel delves into burning questions about modern Muslim identity in a world aflame with violence.

Anita Rose lives in a concrete block in one of Karachi’s biggest slums, languishing in poverty with her mother and older brother. Determined to escape her stifling circumstances, she struggles to educate herself, scribbling down English words—gleaned from watching TV or taught by her elderly neighbour—in her most prized possession: a glossy red notebook. All the while she is aware that a larger destiny awaits her.

On the other side of Karachi lives Monty, whose father owns half the city. But Monty wants more than fast cars and easy girls. When the rebellious Layla joins his school, he knows his life will never be the same again.

And far away in Portsmouth, Sunny fits in nowhere. It is only when he meets his charismatic, suntanned cousin Oz—whose smile makes Sunny feel found—that that he realizes his true purpose.

These three disparate lives will cross paths in the middle of a desert, a place where life and death walk hand-in-hand, and where their closely guarded secrets will force them to make a terrible choice.

‘Penguin India has been my home for the past ten years and I am thrilled that my new novel—a book very close to my heart—will be published by them this October.’ Fatima Bhutto

‘Fatima Bhutto’s new novel is born out of very contemporary concerns, and her characters are absorbingly complex—from a young woman struggling to better her prospects to a young man tormented by homosexual urges he strives to suppress. Readers are going to be shocked and moved by what she has to say.’ Ambar Sahil Chatterjee, Commissioning Editor, Penguin Random House India

‘Fatima’s new novel does not shy away from disturbing truths about the world we live in today, and her skills as a storyteller are at their peak. To say I am excited about The Runaways is a huge understatement!’ Meru Gokhale, Editor-in-Chief, Literary Publishing, Penguin Random House India

PRESS RELEASE

Penguin is delighted to announce that Applause Entertainment, headed by media veteran Sameer Nair, has acquired the rights of Novoneel Chakraborty’s novels The Stranger Trilogy, a bestseller known for its edgy, gripping, and engaging plot. Partnering with Goldie Behl, this 3 season show by Applause Entertainment will bring the romantic thriller series to life. The show will revolve around the fictional love story of a lady and her pursuer.

With 10 published novels at the young age of 30, Novoneel Chakraborty is an author known for his romantic thrillers. Marry Me, Stranger; All yours, Stranger and his latest Forget me not, Stranger are the three books which follow the life of the protagonist Rivanah. The show too will revolve around her trying to find her footing in Mumbai and undergoing a roller-coaster of emotions. This will be a coming-of-age drama where we’ll see the protagonist transform from a sheltered, spoilt brat to a strong and independent woman. Director and producer Goldie Behl is distinguished as one of the personalities in the country who has created bold and youth-based content across films and television. He is now all set to make his grand entry into the web-space with ‘The Stranger Trilogy’ in collaboration with Applause Entertainment.

Talking about this new acquisition, Sameer Nair, CEO, Applause Entertainment commented “Pocket content and web-series are most enjoyed by the viewers of today. At Applause, we want to create interesting as well as attention gripping stories that caters to and reaches out to widespread audiences. ‘The Stranger Trilogy’ are extremely enthralling novels and by collaborating with Goldie Behl and Novoneel Chakraborty for this show, we aim to provide the audiences with three exciting seasons of the trilogy’’.

‘’The Stranger Trilogy has been a phenomenon amongst its readers and I’m confident Rose Audio Visuals and Applause Entertainment will give us all something worth remembering in the form of a compelling Web Series’’ said author, Novoneel Chakraborty.

“The Stranger Trilogy are iconic books for young readers and having an expert like Sameer onboard, we can be assured that there is a great show in store for the viewers too. As the digital medium is where the audiences are today, we hope to tap their interest and create a binge-worthy show” says Goldie Behl.

Milee Ashwarya, Editor-in-Chief Penguin Random House, stated, “The Stranger Series by Novoneel Chakraborty is a bestselling and a widely acclaimed thriller trilogy. I am delighted and extremely proud that more people will be able to experience the magic of Novoneel’s master storytelling through a new platform.”

The show is yet to be titled and casting of the series is currently underway with the shoot looking to begin in April. The series is expected to be launched later this year and will be shot extensively across various locations in Mumbai.

About the author
Novoneel Chakraborty is the bestselling author of ten romantic thriller novels and one short story collection titled Cheaters. His novel ‘Forget Me Not, Stranger’ debuted at no. 1 bestseller rank across India. While ‘All Yours, Stranger’ ranked in top 5 thriller novels on Amazon, India. The only one to feature amidst other international bestsellers. His novel ‘Black Suits You’ was in top 5 thrillers in Amazon for 15 weeks straight. His latest Forever Series has sustained in the bestseller list for ten weeks straight after release with Forever Is A Lie featuring in the highest selling books on Flipkart for 2017 while Forever Is True made it to the Amazon’s MEMORABLE BOOKS of 2017 and TIMES OF INDIA’s MOST STUNNING BOOKS of 2017. Apart from novels, Novoneel has written and developed several TV shows Like Savdhaan India, Yeh Hai Aashiqui. He lives and works in Mumbai.

About Penguin Random House India
Penguin Random House India is the largest English language trade publisher in the subcontinent, publishing over 250 new titles every year and with an active backlist of over 3000 titles. With a strong fiction and nonfiction list, we publish across every segment including biography, travel, business, politics, history, religion and philosophy, lifestyle, cookery, health and fitness, sports and leisure, visual books and children’s books. The children’s titles are published under the Puffin imprint.

Our illustrious list includes Booker Prize winning novels and virtually every major literary prize, including the Nobel Prize, the Magsaysay Award, the Jnanpith Award, the Sahitya Akademi Award and the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. Several of our authors are also recipients of the Bharat Ratna and the Padma Vibhushan, India’s highest civilian honours.

Penguin Random House India is also the exclusive distribution partner for several leading local and international publishing houses in India.

PRESS RELEASE

Sales soar to new heights with 200 million copies sold worldwide

LONDON, 27th March 2017 – More than twenty international publishers will once again simultaneously publish and release Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Book 13, an all-new original story by bestselling author Jeff Kinney. The book will go on sale in the United Kingdom and for publishing houses around the world including United States, Canada, Germany, France, Australia, Turkey, Greece, Taiwan, Poland, Japan, Brazil, Spain, Catalonia, Portugal, Hungary, Romania, Sweden, Lativa, Norway, Israel, Korea, and the Czech Republic on 30th October 2018.

Puffin also announce today that the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series has sold over 200 million copies worldwide. The Wimpy Kid books are published in 65 editions in 56 languages in over 140 countries, which means that the books are now read in over two-thirds of the world’s countries.

Book 13 follows the enormous international acclaim of Book 12, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Getaway, which debuted at the top of bestseller lists around the world. The title and cover for the new book will be revealed on 1st May as part of a high-profile promotional campaign leading up to publication. A new teaser image accompanies this press release; feel a winter chill in the spring air? Wimpy is coming!

Francesca Dow, MD of Penguin Random House Children’s says: ‘We are enormously proud to be the UK home of Diary of a Wimpy Kid and achieving the extraordinary milestone of 200 million copies sold worldwide is a very rare feat indeed for any series. Jeff Kinney has brought joy and confidence to millions of kids who’ve discovered the fun of reading with Diary of a Wimpy Kid. So we couldn’t be more excited about a new book from Jeff which is always cause for celebration – hotly anticipated by children around the world. We can’t wait to see what adventures Greg will be going on next and are thrilled to be part of this huge international publishing moment, bringing book thirteen in this phenomenal series to as many readers as possible around the world simultaneously’.

PRESS RELEASE

In Feminist Rani, India’s top female leaders, role models and activists will talk about feminism in today’s context. The book will showcase a collection of interviews with path-breaking and fascinating opinion leaders – women who have advocated gender equality and women’s rights through their work, words and deliberation. In speaking lyrically and candidly of their journey, their struggles, and their victories, the book will offer readers an important insight into the many significant issues that continue to be central to the lives of women everywhere. The book will address what feminism means to successful and powerful women today. Is equality a bra-burning satirical parody, or a way for women to the odious task of being caretakers of men through meritocracy and talent?

Feminist Rani will serve as a testimony and memoir of women’s issues, as well as a lucid and comprehensive primer to feminism, within the realm of power, success and money.

Meghna Pant states, “In our society, women have been conditioned to please our brothers, fathers, husbands, sons and our bosses. What kind of life are we leading as women in India if we say ‘I will not sacrifice, I will not compromise, I will not be subservient, and I will not adjust’? That’s the basic framework of feminism in India’s context today. Adding on, she asserts, “Every woman who rises above her circumstances to shift the axis on which women stand, and gives them a higher place in society’s matrix, is an empowered female. Every woman who reframes gender biases and makes the world more hospitable to women is an opinion leader. That’s what me must strive for”.

Shaili Chopra says, “Women are a community still waiting to be mainstreamed and Feminist Rani had its origin in that thought. Feminism is not just what got global attention in 2017 – feminism is what is going to the movement of today and tomorrow. For me it’s a personal mission that women take a chance on themselves because that’s the least they can owe to themselves. We need to bring the dialogue centre stage, put the spotlight on role models, and make everyday feminism an objective. Every conversation matters”.

Editor-in-Chief at PRH India, Milee Ashwarya comments, “As publishers we feel strongly and passionately about some subjects. For me women’s issues and women empowerment is one of them. I am delighted and proud that we will be publishing Feminist Rani by Shaili Chopra and Meghna Pant this year. I don’t think there could be more suitable writers for the book. Shaili and Meghna are both trailblazers and women icons. I can’t wait to have Feminist Rani on our list”.

About the authors
Meghna Pant is an award-winning author, columnist, feminist and TEDx Speaker. Her books have been published to critical and commercial acclaim. Pant’s debut collection of short stories HAPPY BIRTHDAY (Random House, 2013) was long-listed for the Frank O’Connor International Award 2014, the world’s biggest short story prize. ONE AND A HALF WIFE (Westland, 2012) – her bestselling debut novel – won the national Muse India Young Writer Award and was shortlisted for several other awards, including the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. Her latest book THE TROUBLE WITH WOMEN (Juggernaut, 2016) is considered a landmark in feminist writing and was described as ‘the best book from Juggernaut’ by The Hindu Business Line. Pant has also won the FON South Asia Short Story Award (2016) and The Bharat Nirman Award (2017) for her writing.

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni describes Pant’s writing as ‘surprising and moving’, Jeet Thayil as ‘deft and expertly-tuned’, Jerry Pinto as ‘competent’, and Ashwin Sanghi as ‘provocative and inspirational’. Pant is known for having abridged the world’s longest epic, THE MAHABHARATA, into one hundred tweets that The Guardian (UK) quoted as ‘wonderfully descriptive and paced’.

Pant hosts her own online chat shows with India’s top female leaders and opinion makers – FIRST LADY, SHE’S THE BOSS and NINE MONTHS – for FirstPost, and also curates a monthly panel discussion on feminism called FEMINIST RANI for SheThePeople. She’s invited as a speaker for many of the nation’s biggest literary festivals, panel discussions and conferences. Her articles are regularly published in The Hindustan Times, The Huffington Post, Scroll, Times of India, Vogue, DNA, Mumbai Mirror, Tehelka, MidDay, Man’s World, Little India, South Asian Times, India Today, Firstpost and DailyO, among others. Pant has previously worked as a business news anchor with Times Now, NDTV and Bloomberg-UTV in Mumbai and New York.

Shaili Chopra is the founder of SheThePeople.TV, India’s no.1 digital media platform for women, dedicated to passionately championing and promoting their stories, to Empower, Engage and Elevate their efforts. It has reached over 15 million women through its online and offline network. Shaili received the Vital Voices Fellowship for 2017. Beyond Diversity Foundation also felicitated her with the Woman of Influence Award 2017 for her work with SheThePeople. In March 2016 Shaili was announced one of India’s Top 50 Most Influential Women in Media, Marketing and Advertising by IMPACT Magazine.

A familiar television face, she has been one of India’s top television editor presenters. Her prolific career in journalism, which has now furthered her into entrepreneurship. In her last role, she was the Editor and Lead Anchor at ET NOW, the Economic Times Business News Channel and earlier with India’s largest TV network NDTV where she was part of the core team that set up their business channel NDTV Profit. She is the author of the critically acclaimed Big Connect- Politics in the Age of Social Media; a book on golf and business called Birdies and Business and When I Was 25 a book in which India’s top change-agents and leaders share their stories of risk and reward.

About Penguin Random House India
Penguin Random House India is the largest English language trade publisher in the subcontinent, publishing over 250 new titles every year and with an active backlist of over 3000 titles. With a strong fiction and nonfiction list, we publish across every segment including biography, travel, business, politics, history, religion and philosophy, lifestyle, cookery, health and fitness, sports and leisure, visual books and children’s books. The children’s titles are published under the Puffin imprint.

Our illustrious list includes Booker Prize winning novels and virtually every major literary prize, including the Nobel Prize, the Magsaysay Award, the Jnanpith Award, the Sahitya Akademi Award and the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. Several of our authors are also recipients of the Bharat Ratna and the Padma Vibhushan, India’s highest civilian honours.

Penguin Random House India is also the exclusive distribution partner for several leading local and international publishing houses in India.

PRESS RELEASE

Jnanpith-winner Krishna Sobti is a living legend, and it is with immense pride that Penguin Random House India acquires her magnificent new novel, Gujarat Pakistan Se Gujarat Hindustan, to be translated by the enormously talented Daisy Rockwell.

Regarded as the crowning achievement in a hugely accomplished literary career, Gujarat Pakistan Se Gujarat Hindustan is also Sobti’s most intensely personal novel to date. Set in the years following the Partition of 1947, and moving between Delhi and the princely state of Sirohi, it tells the story of Manjhli, the feisty and fearless heroine who must struggle to navigate her way amidst myriad challenges in a newly independent India. This is not only a tale of Partition loss and dislocation, but also a snapshot of a particularly fluid moment in Indian history. It’s the story of Indian Independence but also of the independence, fierce spirit, and coming of age of a young woman who does not see her gender or her refugee status as a reason to compromise or bow down before small-mindedness and petty shows of authority.

An intricate fusion of memoir, novel and feminist anthem, this book is a marvel. PRHI will publish this in early 2019 under the Hamish Hamilton imprint.

‘I am very happy about my work coming to Penguin India, and I hope for the best.’ Krishna Sobti

‘I am honoured to take on the challenge of translating Krishna Sobti’s latest novel, Gujarat Pakistan Se Gujarat Hindustan. At the age of ninety-two, Sobti has published an astounding work that defies classification and is unlike any I have read: it is part novel, part memoir, part poetry, part history–all told with humour and honesty in Sobti’s unique and inimitable voice.’ Daisy Rockwell

‘This is a coup for Penguin India, especially as it brings together Krishna Sobti’s towering literary legacy and Daisy Rockwell’s impeccable gifts as a translator. The coming together of these two remarkable writers is a publishing event in itself.’ Ambar Sahil Chatterjee, Commissioning Editor, Penguin Random House India

‘Krishna Sobti is a treasure: a writer who is not only an icon for an entire generation of readers but who continues to inspire us all. It’s an absolute honour to welcome a writer of such magnificence to the PRHI family.’ Meru Gokhale, Editor-in-Chief, Literary Publishing, Penguin Random House India