Roy and Hamid to Hamish Hamilton
24.02.09 Catherine Neilan writing in The Bookseller

Hamish Hamilton has acquired the rights to a collection of "linked essays" by Booker Prize-winner and political writer Arundhati Roy. Entitled The Dark Side of Democracy, Roy's new book will be published in June this year. Hamish Hamilton said the series of essays "tracks the faultlines that threaten to destroy India's precarious democracy and send shockwaves through the region and beyond".
Simon Prosser, publishing director, acquired British and Commonwealth rights from David Godwin.

The publisher said it was "thrilled to welcome" the author. Roy's 2004 novel The God of Small Things was published by Harper Perennial and her previous essay collections The Ordinary Person's Guide to Empire and The Algebra of Infinite Justice were published by the now-defunct Harper imprint Flamingo.

Prosser has also acquired British and Commonwealth rights to the follow up to the Booker-shortlisted novel The Reluctant Fundamentalist. The deal was struck via Eugenie Furniss at the William Morris Agency.

Mohsin Hamid's new novel, which is as-yet-untitled, is "tentatively" set in London and Pakistan. It has been scheduled for completion in three years time.