The Girl Who Ate Books

by Nilanjana Roy

  One of India’s most widely read journalists, Roy has been writing reviews, columns, essays and features for over two decades. The Girl Who Ate Books revisits the best of these occasional pieces and weaves them together with a set of new personal essays. From early memories of living in a house made of books to encounters with men and women who hoarded books to the author’s first taste of the printed word, this is a memoir of reading, loving and living with books like no other. Bringing together writers across generations – from the obscure Sake Dean Mahomet to the mischievous Khushwant Singh to the fiery Arundhati Roy – The Girl Who Ate Books gives us a ringside view of the theatre of Indian writing in English over several decades, and especially the last two.

  Written in the author’s understated but unfailingly elegant style, this is an essential collection for those who live to read and read to live.

  About the Author

  Nilanjana Roy is an internationally acclaimed journalist, columnist and writer. Her books include The Wildings (2012), which won the Shakti Bhatt First Book Award in 2013, and The Hundred Names of Darkness (2013). She lives in New Delhi.

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  First published in India in 2016 by Fourth Estate

  An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers India

  Copyright © Nilanjana Roy 2016

  P-ISBN: 978-93-5029-711-7

  Epub Edition © December 2015 ISBN: 978-93-5029-712-4

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  Nilanjana Roy asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

  The views and opinions expressed in this book are the author’s own and the facts are as reported by her, and the publishers are not in any way liable for the same.

  All rights reserved under The Copyright Act, 1957. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins Publishers India.

  Cover design: Kriti Monga

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