Revisiting Best Seller and Amsterdam - Boekenmarkt at Spui

The Book Market at Spui -  a favourite haunt of Sandeep and Dr. Roy.

Among Sandeep's many purchases here was Pablo Neruda's Love. According to him:  “Neruda’s Love. I got it for 2 euro from the Boekenmarkt at Spui today. That’s the diversity of Amsterdam. You can buy love for twenty minutes for fifty euro ... or can get it for a life time for as little as two ..."

Amsterdam and Best Seller Revisited - Boom Chicago

At one of Simon van der Wiel's favourite haunts in Amsterdam - the Boom Chicago comedy show.

Other than drawing Simon to the city with its side splitting attractions, the Show also provides Dr. Suprakash Roy inspiration with its punchline iPhone therefore I am.

Creative Juices flow at Jay's Juice Shop

Jay Garrido is visibly delighted at featuring in a real novel.
It is seated in front of his shop, drinking from the glasses served by him and his lovely assistant Nicci, Sandeep paraphrases the Mahabharata and the Gita for Simon.

The Second Amazon Review

The second review on Amazon has come in. Read on

Journal of Commonwealth Literature about Big Apple 2 Bites

"Arunabha Sengupta’s second novel Big Apple Two Bites shows the varied responses of Indian software professionals on deputation in New York. Some grumble about the food and culture, others direct all
their efforts towards saving money. His first novel Labyrinth (2004) presented young software engineers on their fi rst job in Chennai. Here a more experienced professional is sent to New York as a consultant on a project, once before and once after 9/11. Sen’s time in New York revolves around the Japanese martial art form Aikido, and an attractive colleague, Allison Palmer. The novelist deals with great sensitivity with
the issues of 9/11, the loss of jobs in the software sector, and disillusion with the corporate environment. There is a lot of enjoyable humour. The entire book is written in the second person, adding a touch of freshness to the narrative."


http://jcl.sagepub.com/content/43/4/89.full.pdf

Due to the curious world of traditional publishing in India, this novel is intermittently available - although there is a  constant demand for it and every review has been favourable. The same fate is suffered by Doppelganger Days in The Best Seller. I am on my way to ensuring constant availability on Amazon and other sales channels within the next couple of months.

Flights of Fancy

When I look back at the past year, I realise that a major part of the second draft of the book was written as I shuttled between Amsterdam and Zurich on KLM.
So, did I revel in the flights of fancy? Did I reach rarefied heights of creativity? Or did I look at the world with a CEO like vision where truth and fiction merge into each other?

The First Amazon Review is in

Click here to read

Zijn of Niet Zijn

Shakespeare could have written a sequel to Hamlet set in Amsterdam, but the Dutch would have never got around to deciding between to be and not to be. The whole play would have been an existential drama around conference tables.

- Sandeep Gupta in The Best Seller