Written by Sunaina Serna Ahluwalia, "An Autumn Melody" is an account of a decadent and powerful Page 3 set narrated through the life of a woman, Darshana. Three men, each as different as chalk from cheese, play important roles in her life.

Kirat, her alcoholic husband, rules over her traumas. Robi Ghosh, a prize-winning photographer, influences her. Rizwan, her first and most intense love, watches over her from a distance.

Set in India and Britain, the novel is set against the backdrop of the anti-Sikh riots of 1984 and the characters bear the wounds inflicted by the rage which ravaged the country's northern states.

Published by Rupa & Co; Priced at Rs.195.

Writer Aatish Taseer, son of slain Pakistani politician Salmaan Taseer, says the description of his father as "not a man of religion, but a brilliant well-read intellectual" in one of his books is being used to drum up support for his father's killer by a section of Pakistani society.

In an incident that shook Pakistan's liberals, Punjab Governor Salman Taseer was assassinated Jan 4, 2011, by his own bodyguard for opposing the oppressive blasphemy law.

The core of travel writing may not have changed much over the centuries, but an emerging breed of travel writers, both Indians and others, are bringing in a vital change - focussing more on people and less on places.

It is cocktail at its best, a fine brew of history, cultural spice, politics and local favours that whets the appetite of the itinerant book worm and the stray thinker. And it helps the tourism industry pick up an odd cue as well.

One of the leading protagonists of this new genre of writers is novelist Amitav Ghosh, whose novels "In an Antique Land", "The Glass Palace", "The Hungry Tide", "The Sea of Poppies" and "The River of Smoke" are tales set in regions as colourful and eclectic as the Nile delta, Mandalay, Sundarban delta and Guangzhou, the Canton of yore.

India's growing potential is the subject of admiration for Eugenio Monteiro, a Goan-based in Portugal, who has just authored a book focusing on India's rise as an economic power.

The book, being released Friday, is called "The Rise of India". It was earlier published in Spanish as "El despertar de la India".

Monteiro sees India as "a country vast and diverse like its challenges", and goes about seeking to explain its many facets in the book. He sees a "miracle" in the recent economic changes in India, and the entrepreneurial energies unleashed owing to them.

His overview is meant to introduce an understanding of India, from the 1600s to the East India Company's stay, right down to the economic changes India has seen in recent times.