Bounty for book lovers in 2012

Penguin India`s upcoming books include "Man of the World: A Biography of Barack" by Pultizer Prize-winning journalist David Maraniss; "Rajinikanth" by critic Naman Ramachandran; Shashi Tharoor`s "Pax Hindica" on India`s international relations in the new millennium and Shobhaa De`s "Sethji", a sensational novel about the nexus among politics, big business and Bollywood.

Pulitzer-winning US journalist Katherine Boo`s "Beyond the Beautiful Forevers", a fast-paced and riveting book on Mumbai`s slums; Gurcharan Das` "India Grows at Night", and "The Man Within My Head" by Pico Iyer are among other top Penguin titles.

For Simon & Schuster India, the biggest title for the first half of the year is "The Magic" by Rhonda Byrne. "We will also publish a new book by Kishwar Desai and have a line of debut authors like Mark Allen Smith. `The Inquisitor` (US rights sold for more than half million dollars)-and Karen Thompson Walker-`Age of Miracles`," Rahul Srivastava, director (sales and marketing) at S&S, told PTI.

Simon & Schuster has signed a three book joint publishing deal with Desai. Clare Hey, Senior Commissioning Editor at Simon & Schuster UK, has bought UK and Commonwealth and Indian rights in two new novels from Desai, whose debut "Witness the Night" (HarperCollins) won the Costa First Novel Award 2010. The deal also includes UK and Commonwealth rights for "Witness the Night", which S&S UK will be reissuing. The first of the two new novels, "Origins of Love" will come out in June.

Amaryllis` top titles include "Aung San Suu Kyi: A Biography" by Jesper Bengtsson; "Ten Kings: Based on the Dasrajan Battle in Rigveda" by Ashok K Banker, "The Accidental Godman" by journalist-sports commentator Kishore Bhimani, "The Audacity of Opinion: Thoughts, Journeys, Musings" by former Union minister Jaswant Singh and "Indira Gandhi: A Personal and Political Biography" by Inder Malhotra.

Picador`s 40th anniversary in 2012 will see a host of activities. As part of the celebratory programme, Pan Macmillan India will publish specially designed editions of three commercially and critically successful Picador India and three Picador UK titles. These are "The Palace of Illusions" by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni; "A House for Mr Biswas" by V S Naipaul" and "Between the Assassinations" by Aravind Adiga from the India list and "Room" by Emma Donoghue, the Booker-winning "Last Orders" by Graham Swift and Roberto Bolano`s "The Savage Detectives" from the UK list.

"We will follow this later in the year with 6 more Picador titles, amongst them Bridget Jones` Diary by Helen Fielding, John Banville`s Booker-winning The Sea and the international sensation, The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold," says Pan Macmillan`s Rachna Kalra.

Pan Macmillan`s own titles include Jeffrey Archer`s "Sins of the Father"; China Mieville`s "Railsea"; Ajit Balakrishnan`s "The Wave Rider" and "The Pink Sari Revolution" by Amana Fontanella Khan on Uttar Pradesh`s vigilante organisation which is an ultimate embodiment of girl power.

Westland has also an elaborate list of titles for 2012. It includes "Wow @ Sixty" by Namita Jain; "Portraits from Ayodhya" by Scharada Dubey; "The Forest of Stories, Book One" in Ashok Banker?s long-awaited `MBA` series and "The Tranquebar Book of Erotic Stories Part II", edited by Sheeba Karim.

Rupa has announced the launch of its new hardcover imprint Rain Tree which will originate approximately 15-20 titles a year in the areas of fiction, general non-fiction, history, biography, autobiography, politics, current affairs, business, culture, art, religion and lifestyle.

Bureaucrat Navtej Sarna`s book of stories "A Winter Evening", Shoba Narayan`s "Return to India: A Memoir" and Ruskin Bond`s "A Little Book of Life" are some titles to come out under Rain Tree imprint.