New Delhi, Apr 16 (PTI)

 

The International Booker Prize-winning duo author Geetanjali Shree and translator Daisy Rockwell will be coming out with two new books in the next one year, Penguin Random House India (PRHI) has announced.

 

While the first book, "Our City That Year", will be released later this year, "Once Elephants Lived Here" will come out in 2025 under Penguin's Hamish Hamilton imprint.

 

A new version of Shree's first novel, "Mai", translated by Nita Kumar, will also be republished by June this year.

"It is wonderful to have three of my books coming out anew. 'Mai', my first novel, is special to me. It is the bedrock on which my writing grew. The stories in 'Once Elephants Lived Here' reflect diverse directions. To get back to these books with a team that has worked so wonderfully before - Penguin, Tilted Axis, HarperVia, and of course, Daisy and me - is so rejuvenating.

"We are like a well-established musical gharana which is solid in its basics and comes up with renderings of ragas ever richer in their fresh new renditions," Shree said in a statement.

 

Translated from the original "Hamara Shahar Us Baras" in Hindi, "Our City That Year" is a "churning and soul-searching novel" that takes readers on a poignant journey with a tale that unfolds against the backdrop of societal shifts and "speaks to our paranoid divisive times".

 

"Translating 'Our City that Year' has been thrilling, terrifying, and of course, challenging. It was wonderful to discover many of the seeds of Geetanjali's later experimentation which we later see in full bloom in 'Tomb of Sand'. It's been wonderful to collaborate with Geetanjali and Penguin India again on this timely and incisive project," Rockwell said.

 

"Once Elephants Lived Here" is the title story in a collection of short stories which offers a glimpse into the author's early exploration of themes that later manifested in the Booker-winning "Tomb of Sand".

 

Talking about the three books, Manasi Subramaniam, editor-in-chief at Penguin Press, said that the acquisitions mark a "significant step forward in Penguin Press's ongoing mission to cultivate a diverse landscape for translations".

"The acclaim garnered by Tomb of Sand underscores the remarkable synergy between Geetanjali Shree and Daisy Rockwell, illuminating their collective brilliance and reinforcing our conviction in this duo. Additionally, reintroducing 'Mai' to the world serves to reaffirm its enduring status as a cornerstone of Indian literature. These three books underscore our steadfast ethos of amplifying women in translation," Subramaniam said.

 

In 2022, Shree became the first Indian author to win the International Booker Prize for her novel "Ret Samadhi", which was translated into English as "Tomb of Sand" by Rockwell.

A new paperback cover for "Tomb of Sand" was also announced by Penguin.