Chinese, Pak, African authors at literature festival in Kerala

Zhang, who is visiting India for the first time would speak about her bestseller "Socialism is Great", a memoir of her growing up years in China of the 1980s, at the third edition of the festival, scheduled to be held on October 2-3 at the Kanakakunnu Place in Kerala's capital city.

Mohammed Haneef who wrote "A case of the exploding mangoes" along with Ali Sethi whose debut novel "The Wish Maker" and H M Naqvi's "The Home boy" form the authors from Pakistan who will read out and discuss their books at the festival.

"We also have Debrah Baker, the wife of Amitav Ghosh reading out from her yet to be released book on Islam and Pakistan," says an organiser of the festival.

Baker's book "The Convert: A Parable of Islam and America," is scheduled to be released next year in India.

Among other invitees include poet lyricist ONV Kurup, writer Paul Zachariah, Kashmiri author Basharat Peer, graphic novelist Sarnath Banerjee, Amish Tripathi, Mridula Koshy and Manu Joseph. Capt Gopinath, talks about his autobiography "simply fly.in" with Amit Baruah.

South African author-journalist Zubeida Jaffer will also read from her second non-fiction book "Love in the time of treason."

The concluding session of the festival will feature a debate "Indo-Pak is there a way ahead" in which former External Minister Shashi Tharoor is expected to participate.
Kovalam festival is being sponsored by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations, the Taj Group of Hotels and publishers Penguin India.