Doom to dominate

Binge-watchers are suffering online fatigue, and with Covid-19 curtailing movie production, they’re reaching for books instead.

BENGALURU: Binge-watchers are suffering online fatigue, and with Covid-19 curtailing movie production, they’re reaching for books instead. With a bumper year ahead for authors and readers alike, here are some trends for 2021:

Apocalyptic fiction: Reflecting 2020 gloom, the theme of doom will continue to dominate.  
Sci-fi dystopian novels: A popular genre last year, it is set to attract a whole new set of readers. 
Hope prevails: There will be more titles reflecting optimism. Books that offer comfort reading, self-care and health -- besides bread-baking and romance.

Narrative non-fiction: A rapidly growing genre. Bill Gates’s How to Avoid a Climate Disaster is expected next February. The Code Breaker by Walter Isaacson, on gene editing, promises to be a bestseller. George Floyd’s murder sparked huge interest in antiracism, and many ‘minority’ authors will debut. 

More women authors: Two highly anticipated titles are, in fiction, Jhumpa Lahiri’s Whereabouts, and in non-fiction, Gayle Tzemach Lemmon’s The Daughters of Kobani. (The author is a technologist based in Silicon Valley who is gently mad about books)

Related Stories

No stories found.
The New Indian Express
www.newindianexpress.com