2015 began with the mega annual event - the Jaipur Literature Festival where Nobel winner V S Naipaul, American travel writer Paul Theroux, Amit Chaudhuri, Pakistan's Hanif Kureishi, Man Book Prize winner Eleanor Catton and Bailey's Prize winner Eimear McBride were among scores of invited guests.
The Indian literary scene was abuzz with activities in 2015 with works of several big-ticket authors rolled out and a number of festivals organised among other things but writers returning their awards in protest against growing intolerance made maximum headlines.
The year saw numerous autobiographies and biographies, and books related to business, commercial and mass market fiction, besides literary fiction, sports, self help, chik-lit and culinary works. There were a number of works by new and little-known authors too.
2015 began with the mega annual event - the Jaipur Literature Festival where Nobel winner V S Naipaul, American travel writer Paul Theroux, Amit Chaudhuri, Pakistan's Hanif Kureishi, Man Book Prize winner Eleanor Catton and Bailey's Prize winner Eimear McBride were among scores of invited guests. A number of other festivals followed with one in Kumaon claiming to be the first annual retreat literary festival in the country.
But more than 35 authors giving up their Sahitya Akademi awards and five others relinquishing their posts in the literary body against "rising intolerance" saw a new wave of protest. Their action earned the support of celebrated authors like Salman Rushdie and Vikram Seth. PEN International, the world's leading association of writers working to promote literature and defend freedom of expression, also stood in solidarity with the Indian authors. Otherwise, it was a hectic year for publishers.
According to Karthika V K, Publisher of HarperCollins India, 2015 was a "hugely satisfying year for us in terms of the books we published, the many awards and shortlists, and even a publisher of the year award."
For Penguin Random House, 2015 was a "very strong year with more bestsellers than ever before." "On the literary fiction list the standout was the culmination of Amitav Ghosh's epic Ibis Trilogy with the publication of 'Flood of Fire,'" says Caroline Newbury, VP Marketing and Corporate Communications of Penguin Random House.
"This year has also been gratifying in seeing international acclaim for a number of our authors. Amitav Ghosh was shortlisted for the Man Booker International, Akhil Sharma's 'Family Life' won the Folio Prize and Neel Mukherjee's 'The Lives of Others' took the Encore Award for Second Novel," Newbury told PTI.
"It was wonderful to see Jhumpa Lahiri's 'The Lowland' win the DSC Prize, Samanth Subramanian win the Crossword Award for 'This Divided Island' (as well as being shortlisted for the hugely prestigious Samuel Johnson Award) and Mihir Sharma's 'Restart' was longlisted for the FT McKinsey Business Book of the Year before taking the Tata Lit Live Business Book of the Year award jointly with TT Ram Mohan's 'Rethinc'," she says.
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