City cool to Nobel laureate Mo's books

Bookstores in the city are bracing themselves for a spurt in the demand for Mo Yan's works. Mo, a Chinese author, was awarded this year's Nobel Prize in literature on Thursday for his "hallucinatory realism" that "merges folk tales, history and the contemporary".

Bookstores in the city are bracing themselves for a spurt in the demand for Mo Yan's works.

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Mo, a Chinese author, was awarded this year's Nobel Prize in literature on Thursday for his "hallucinatory realism" that "merges folk tales, history and the contemporary".

Bookstore owners feel the sales of Mo's books will increase gradually as word spreads, even as they claim they are ready to meet the demand that will follow Thursday's announcement.

Some bookstores have a few copies of some of Mo's works, but his latest book, Frog, is not yet available.

"There is still no demand for Mo's books. But sales of books jump by almost 30% after their author wins the Man Booker Prize or the Nobel Prize," said Anant Kumar, manager at Om Book Shop.

"We will start stocking Mo's books over the next few days as word spreads," Kumar added.

The management of some big bookstores in the city said they were unaware of the announcement. Others, however, said they had started getting orders for Mo's books.

"We have some orders for about 12 books. But sales will grow by more than 50% in the coming weeks. The publishers also push us to increase the stock," said Asad Baig, owner of Midlands bookstore.