Publication Assistance Programme (PAP Tagore)

Ghumparani Gaan

Chanson Douce by Leïla Slimani published in Bengali by Patra Bharati

Leila Slimani’s bestselling French novel “Chanson Douce” is inspired by true events of the Krim Murders of New York City in 2012. When Myriam decides to return to work as a lawyer after having children, she and her husband look for the perfect nanny for their son and daughter. They never dreamed they would find Louise: a quiet, polite, devoted woman who sings to the children, cleans the family’s chic Paris apartment, stays late without complaint, and hosts enviable kiddie parties. But as the couple and the nanny become more dependent on one another, jealousy, resentment, and suspicions mount, shattering the idyllic tableau. Building tension with every page, this book is a compulsive, riveting, bravely observed exploration of power, class, race, domesticity, motherhood, and madness. Trinanjan Chakraborty has brilliantly fused the palpable tension of the French novel with Bengali lucidity in his translation to deliver a thriller that will keep you hooked till the last page and make you second guess your ideals.

Ek Adhura Upanyas

Hygiene and the Assassin by Amélie Nothomb published in Hindi by Rajpal and Sons

Amélie Nothomb is one of Europe’s most successful and controversial authors. She wrote Hygiene and the Assasin, her first published novel when she was only twenty-five, and it became an instant bestseller across Europe. Prétextat Tach, Nobel Prize winner and one of the world’s most renowned novelists, has two months to live. He has been in seclusion for years, refusing interviews and public appearances. But as news of his impending death becomes public, intrepid journalists from around the globe flock to his home in pursuit of an interview with the elusive author. One after the other they discover that, far from being the literary luminary they imagined, Tach has become an obese misogynist, a petulant bigot, an embittered, disgusting madman. The world’s most famous author turns out to be the worst misanthrope imaginable. But Nina, the final journalist, and the only female to interview Tach calls the celebrated author’s bluff and beats him at his own game. Her questions and the author’s biting responses fly in a triumph of brilliant repartee, and Tach is led to a definitive confrontation with his past, while Nina discovers that in love nothing is ever as straightforward as it seems.

Electric Nights in Beijing

Nouvelle jeunesse by Nicolas Idier published in English by Yatra Books

This is the novel that New China has been waiting for— the China of underground music, poetry and art, thriving in the aftermath of Mao and the Cultural Revolution. Electric Nights in Beijing is set in the backdrop of the student protests at Tiananmen Square. It is the story of a young rockstar, Feng Lei, who grows up in the West and comes back to China to meet his father, one of the student protesters incarcerated in the aftermath of 1989. It is a shifting fresco of density and depth and a portrait of Beijing, the mysterious forbidden city, in the first decade of the 21st century. As skyscrapers spring up on the horizon and the metros dig immense subterranean tunnels, the young still dare to dream, looking up at the stars. They live a parallel life, rhythmic, fast, brutal, sometimes overwhelmingly joyous, and often incredibly sad. They are poets, rockstars, lovers. They are the ones who never sleep, who drink too much and run breathlessly down deserted sidewalks. Among them are Feng Lei, a loner who has returned to Beijing despite the scars of his past, and Sam, the prettiest girl in town, and Xiaopo, a Mao look-alike, who has become a cabbie. They must each run fearlessly and fast to escape their ghosts. French author and sinologist, Nicolas Idier, has spent many years in China, He knows and loves the country deeply and expresses this sensitively in a stunning novel that captivates the reader from the first page.