Taslima book sales jump after controversy

The seventh part of Taslima
Nareen's autobiography 'Nirbasan' (Exile) is selling like hot
cakes at the Kolkata Book Fair, a day after it was released
amidst controversy.
"We have ordered a reprint. The first print of 1000
copies is sold out. We are overwhelmed with the response,"
publisher Shibani Mukherji of the People's Book Society said.
Bookstores and stalls at the fair are already running
out of stock.
"Women, in particular, are making a beeline for our
stall," the publisher said insisting that the contents of the
memoirs had nothing controversial.
The latest installment in the series of her memoirs,
'Nirbasan' gives an account of the controversial Bangladeshi
author's plight following her expulsion from her adopted home
of Kolkata in November 2007.
Written in Bengali, the new book traces the
circumstances in which she was bundled out by the government
to New Delhi and the resultant mental trauma and insecurity of
not having a home anywhere in the world.
"It talks about the period 2007-08 of my life
beginning from the attack on me during a book release function
at Hyderabad. Later on, chaos was created in Kolkata and I
was asked to leave the city," Nasreen told Media Person from New Delhi.

A day after cancellation of the official release of her book at the Kolkata Book Fair
following protests, controversial Bangladeshi author Taslima
Nasreen today claimed that three Bengali directors who had
planned films on her life and novels had now backtracked.
"The contracts were signed. But the directors have
suddenly fallen silent," Taslima told from New Delhi on a
proposed biopic on her life and films on two novels 'Shodh'
(Revenge) and 'Nimontron' (Invitation).
"I do not know what has happened to them. Who has asked
them not to make the films?" she questioned, hinting that the
directors may have withdrawn apparently under pressure from
fundamentalists.
On the release yesterday of the seventh part of her
autobiography 'Nirbasan' (Exile) by her publisher People's
Book Society after the official release was cancelled in the
wake of protests by right wing groups, Taslima said, "The
issue is not the book at all. Taslima is the issue.
"Neither the fundamentalists nor those in the government
have read the book. Even if someone organises a 'Taslima
Flower Show', they will demand a ban," said the 49-year-old
author who had to flee Bangladesh in 1994 after she was
accused of hurting religious sentiments with her novel 'Lajja'
(Shame).