David Davidar Biography and latest books by David Davidar

David Davidar, a renowned Indian novelist and publisher, was born, on 27^th September 1958, in a small town in (now) 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 the influence of both the states can be felt prominently in his fiction. He has one sibling, Ruth Swamy, a nutritionist and dietician.

He attended Sainik School, Amaravathinagar in Coimbatore district (now in Tirupur District). He graduated with a B.Sc degree in Botany from Madras Christian College in 1979. He then attended the Radcliffe Publishing Procedures Course at Harvard University and obtained a diploma in publishing, in 1985.

After graduating from college, in 1979, David stepped in to the world of journalism. His first job was with the Bombay-based activist magazine, Himmat. The magazine, founded by Rajmohan Gandhi, the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, shut down in a few years. Davidar then joined a features magazine, 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 addition to his magazine career, Davidar was a columnist for the Hindu newspaper in the 1990s. He has also written numerous articles and book reviews for newspapers and magazines in India, the UK and the US.

After obtaining his diploma in publishing, in 1985, Davidar was hired by Peter Mayer, then chairman of the multinational publishing company, Penguin, as one of the founder members of Penguin India.

David was the company’s first Editor, and later turned in to a Publisher. During his tenure, he edited / published a distinguished line-up of authors including Arundhati Roy, Kiran Desai, Vikram Seth, Suketu Mehta, Shashi Tharoor, Khushwant Singh, Vikram Chandra, Rohinton Mistry, Salman Rushdie, Upamanyu Chatterjee, Mark Tully, William Dalrymple, Ramachandra Guha, Nandan Nilekani and Romila Thapar.

His career span with Penguin saw him hold many a senior positions in the company including: Publisher, Penguin India; CEO, Penguin India; Managing Director, Dorling Kindersley India; and CEO, Pearson India.

He moved to Toronto, Canada in 2004. As Publisher, Penguin Canada, the the authors he published included Philip Roth, Khaled Hosseini, John Le Carre, Stieg Larsson, Nadine Gordimer, Alice Munro, Fatima Bhutto, Amitav Ghosh, Margaret Macmillan, Zadie Smith, Kim Echlin, Hisham Matar, Joseph Boyden, Adrienne Clarkson and John Ralston Saul.

The various positions he held at Toronto included: Publisher, Penguin Canada; CEO and Publisher, Penguin Canada; and CEO, Penguin International, a division of Penguin Books that comprised Penguin companies in Canada, India, South Africa and the Middle East.

In 2010, Davidar was accused by a former colleague of sexual harassment and the controversy led to him being let go by Penguin. He dismissed the allegations which were dropped after the parties reached a settlement.

Soon thereafter, 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

Always literary minded, Davidar published short stories and poems in newspapers and literary magazines.

In 2002, he published his debut novel, The House of Blue Mangoes. The novel was based on Davidar\'s own family, and covered fifty years of South Indian history. The novel had been twelve years in the writing. The novel received a lot of praise and appreciation. It was greeted with acclaim throughout the English speaking world, and was eventually published in 16 countries and translated into as many languages.

Davidar\'s second novel, The Solitude of Emperors (published in 2007), 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. It was short-listed for a regional Commonwealth Writers Prize.

His third novel, Ithaca, set in the world of international publishing, was published in Fall 2011.

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 including, Nicholas Hoare, Ben McNally Books and McNally Robinson