Latest news with #Hachette
New Indian Express
a day ago
- Entertainment
- New Indian Express
Crime chronicles: Harini Nagendra's best-selling series gets new instalment
An elderly woman lies bleeding out on the floor of her ramshackle hut – an intruder turning her home inside out in search of something she refuses to surrender. As this mysterious killer discovers the object and flees, she clutches a picture of Bengaluru's famous female detective Kaveri. Thrusting it into the hands of a boy who discovers her, she breathes her last with a plea on her lips – find the killer. Into the Leopard's Den (`499; Hachette), the fourth volume of writer Harini Nagendra's best-selling cosy mystery series, Bangalore Detectives Club, dives straight into the tangled knots of this mystery, with the now pregnant 21-year-old detective, Kaveri, determined to unravel them all. This time, the case leads her to the lush coffee plantations of Kodagu, leaving her motley crew of inquisitive neighbour aunty Uma, street urchin Venu and housemaid Anandi to investigate in Bengaluru. 'While staying in the house of coffee plantation owner Lakamma, she learns of stories of a ghost leopard terrorising the place and scaring the workers away. At the same time, an exploitative British plantation owner's life is in danger from multiple attacks,' explains Nagendra. As an ecologist, the author's environmental concerns come to the forefront stronger than in the previous three instalments, addressing colonialism's ecological destruction alongside the murder mystery. 'You get an insight into the time – the British expanded coffee production into the forest a lot but at a huge cost – the exploitation of labour, but also an ecological cost to the landscape,' she explains. The Bengaluru of a century ago comes alive in these pages as the reader is transported to places that are familiar yet different. Nagendra explains her fascination with the period, nestled between two world wars and intimately associated with detective fiction from Agatha Christie's Poirot stories to Miss Marple, Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay's popular Byomkesh Bakshi series, and more. 'The 1920s were a very interesting period in Bengaluru because while the rest of India was actively involved in the independence struggle, the Mysore Maharajas had a mediating influence here. While most books about the period have focused on Bombay, Delhi, and Kolkata, I wanted to talk about what it was like to live in Bengaluru at the time.' she explains.
New Indian Express
a day ago
- Entertainment
- New Indian Express
On editors, the invisible architects
In a world that celebrates authors as solitary geniuses, the role of the editor remains largely invisible. A name tucked into acknowledgements, buried in footnotes, or sometimes not mentioned at all. Yet anyone who has truly wrestled with the written word knows: behind every great book stands a quiet co-creator. Editors do more than fix grammar or polish style. They are critics, confidantes, coaches, and often, crisis managers. They are the invisible architects of Maxwell Perkins, the legendary editor who shaped the careers and voices of giants of American literature such as F Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, and Thomas Wolfe. As Scott Berg's Pulitzer Prize-winning biography, Max Perkins: Editor of Genius (later adapted into the film Genius), brilliantly reveals, Perkins was more than an editor. He was a career counsellor, a therapist, a financial lifeline, and above all, a believer. My own writing journey has been shaped by the steady, compassionate hands of remarkable editors. My wife, Deepali, was my first and fiercest critic. She was never afraid to tell me when something didn't work, but always with the faith that it could. She reminded me that writing, like any practice, demands repetition and resilience. C K Meena, my co-author, wields her editorial scalpel with grace and precision. She taught me the value of brevity: that writing is not just about what to say, but what to leave out. And then there was Abhivyakti Singh at Hachette. Gentle yet unwavering. She believed in my voice even when I doubted it myself. The work of great editors often hides in plain sight. Take Ursula Nordstrom, the visionary children's editor at Harper & Row. Her letters, compiled in Dear Genius, are a testament to editorial empathy. Alternately playful, firm, maternal, and fiercely protective, her correspondence with authors like Margaret Wise Brown, Maurice Sendak, and Shel Silverstein reveals a sacred trust. Harold Ross, the founding editor of The New Yorker, left his imprint on the very tone of the magazine. His letters, collected in Letters from the Editor, reveal a man obsessed with rhythm, honesty, and precision. Closer to home, Ramachandra Guha's The Cooking of Books offers a delightful glimpse into the Indian publishing ecosystem. Built around his irreverent and witty exchanges with the reclusive editor Rukun Advani, the book reminds us that editorial relationships are often marked by friction, pushback, and negotiation, but at their best, they are built on mutual trust. Chiki Sarkar represents a new breed of editor – entrepreneurial, intuitive, and in tune with the digital generation. From her time leading Penguin India to founding Juggernaut Books, Sarkar has championed new voices and unconventional formats such as mobile-first literature. One of the towering figures in modern publishing was Sonny Mehta. As the publisher of Knopf, Mehta was a soft-spoken force who balanced literary excellence with commercial appeal. He wasn't interested in trends but in truth. He guided the careers of Haruki Murakami, Michael Ondaatje, Toni Morrison, and countless others. Speaking of Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison, few know she was a trailblazing editor who championed Black voices at Random House long before the industry prioritised diversity. Fewer still know that Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis lived a second life as an editor – a talented one, with a discerning eye – at Viking and Doubleday. What connects unsung editors across the globe is their courage to say 'not yet' when everyone else is saying 'good enough'. They listen, hearing what isn't yet said; they sense the story beneath the syntax and then reveal it. Their fingerprints may be invisible, but their impact is unmistakable. The rewards they seek are not fame or fortune but a line that sings, a paragraph that finally breathes. Their work is a labour of devotion – to the writer, to the reader, and most of all, to the story. To all the invisible architects who shaped the books that shaped us – this is your story too. Thank you. (The writer's views are personal)
ABC News
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- ABC News
Encore: The secret world of servos after dark
David Goodwin spent years working the graveyard shift at his local service station in the outer suburbs of Melbourne. He took the job to support his university studies, but working overnight made study impossible and soon the work took over his life. From his brightly lit perch behind the anti-jump wires, David saw a collection of very strange people come through the auto-doors. There was the man dressed as a giant bee, a woman who offered to pay for her fuel with a half-eaten pizza, and a psychotic man covered in blood. There were self-appointed wizards and speed-addicted truckies, as well as football hooligans who loved singing. The unusual work changed David from a shy and naive teenager into someone with more street smarts, but it also thwarted his true ambitions for years. Further information First broadcast in March 2024. SERVO is published by Hachette. Content Warning: This episode of Conversations contains discussion of drug use.
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Business Standard
16-07-2025
- Business Standard
Vivek Banerji's book shows how to reap insight from information overload
Navigating through tons of data to uncover hidden patterns is a critical skill in this day and age, and the key is to look beyond data dashboards Ajit Balakrishnan Mumbai Listen to This Article Insight Edge: Crafting Breakthroughs in a World of Information Overload Published by Hachette 368 pages ₹799 Information overload is that awful state in which we all find ourselves today, overwhelming us with the vast amount of information with which we are forced to deal. This sense of helplessness occurs when the volume and speed of incoming data exceed our cognitive processing capacity, leading to stress, reduced productivity and poor decision-making. With the internet, social media, and constant notifications, individuals and organisations face excessive choices and data streams, often struggling to identify what is relevant or true. Information overload can
Irish Independent
16-07-2025
- Irish Independent
Eoghan Daltun: ‘I haven't read any fiction for decades. If it's not real, it doesn't work for me any more'
Eoghan Daltun is a sculpture conservator, a High Nature Value farmer and a rewilder. Originally from Dublin, since 2009 he has lived with his two sons on their 73-acre farm near Eyeries on the Beara Peninsula in west Cork. He is author of the best-selling and award-winning book, An Irish Atlantic Rainforest: A Personal Journey into the Magic of Rewilding and The Magic of an Irish Rainforest: A Visual Journey, both published by Hachette.
