David Davidar

David Davidar (born 27 September 1958) is an Indian novelist and publisher. He is the author of three published novels, The House of Blue Mangoes, The Solitude of Emperors (2007), and Ithaca (2011). In parallel to his writing career, Davidar has been a publisher for over a quarter-century. He is the co-founder of Aleph Book Company, a literary publishing firm based in New Delhi.

Personal life

David Davidar was born in Nagercoil, Kanyakumari district, in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu. His father was a tea planter in Kerala, and his mother was a teacher. Davidar grew up in Kerala and Tamil Nadu, and both states feature prominently in his fiction. He has one sibling, Ruth Swamy, a nutritionist and dietician.

He attended Sainik School, Amaravathinagar, in Tiruppur district, and then earned a BSc degree in Botany from Madras Christian College in 1979. In 1985, he obtained a diploma in publishing from the Radcliffe Publishing Procedures Course at Harvard University.

Davidar has been married to Rachna Singh, a bookseller, since 1997. She has worked at The Bookshop in New Delhi, which her family owns, as well as at bookstores in Canada, among them, Nicholas Hoare, Ben McNally Books, and McNally Robinson.

Journalistic career

Davidar began a career in journalism after graduating from college. His first job, in 1979, was with the Bombay-based activist magazine Himmat, which was founded by Rajmohan Gandhi, the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi. When that magazine closed down, Davidar joined a features magazine called Keynote, which was edited by the distinguished poet Dom Moraes, and his actress wife, Leela Naidu. His last job in journalism was with another features magazine called Gentleman where he was Executive Editor.

In August 2010, he moved back to India from Toronto to co-found Aleph Book Company, in partnership with Rupa Publications India, one of the country's largest English-language trade publishers.

Novelistic career

Davidar published short stories and poems in newspapers and literary magazines, before publishing his debut novel, The House of Blue Mangoes, in 2002. The novel, which was based on Davidar's own family, and covered fifty years of South Indian history, had been twelve years in the writing. It was greeted with acclaim throughout the English-speaking world and was eventually published in sixteen countries and translated into as many languages. Among the newspapers and magazines which praised the novel were The New York Times which called it "a polished and accomplished book", London's Sunday Times which thought it was "dazzling" and the San Francisco Chronicle which said Davidar was "an intriguing new voice".

Davidar's second novel, The Solitude of Emperors, which was based on his experiences as a journalist, and the outrage he felt at the communal riots that took place in India in the 1990s, was published in 2007, and was short-listed for a Commonwealth Writers Prize.

His third novel, Ithaca, set in the world of international publishing, was published in Fall 2011. It was praised by several newspapers; The Hindu said it provided "a fascinating insight into the world of publishing". In 2015, he edited an anthology of Indian short stories, A Clutch of Indian Masterpieces, that was widely acclaimed. The Hindu Business Line said: "The collection serves as a guide to Indian consciousness."