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Capital

The Eruption of Delhi
Series: Canons
Brief Description
WINNER OF THE WINDHAM CAMPBELL PRIZE 2025 WINNER OF THE PRIX ÉMILE GUIMET DE LITTÉRATURE ASIATIQUE 2017 WINNER OF THE RYSZARD KAPUSCINSKI AWARD 2017 SHORTLISTED FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE 2015 SHORTLISTED FOR THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF LITERATURE ONDAATJE PRIZE 2015 SHORTLISTED FOR THE PRIX DU MEILLEUR... Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
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Capital is Rana Dasgupta's Orwell Prize-shortlisted non-fiction debut: an unsparing, lyrical portrait of class and wealth disparity in Delhi

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WINNER OF THE WINDHAM CAMPBELL PRIZE 2025

WINNER OF THE PRIX ÉMILE GUIMET DE LITTÉRATURE ASIATIQUE 2017
WINNER OF THE RYSZARD KAPUSCINSKI AWARD 2017
SHORTLISTED FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE 2015
SHORTLISTED FOR THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF LITERATURE ONDAATJE PRIZE 2015
SHORTLISTED FOR THE PRIX DU MEILLEUR LIVRE ÉTRANGER 2016

In Capital, Rana Dasgupta reveals the new version of Delhi which erupted out of its economic boom in the 1990s. An unsparing look at the causes and consequences of globalisation, Capital is at once a history, a warning and a looking glass.

Slums and markets bulldozed or burnt down. Luxury shopping malls and apartment blocks erected in their place. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of people from the rural hinterland streamed in, looking for work. The transformation of the city was stern, abrupt and unequal. Delhi brimmed with ambition and rage.

In this prescient account of the mayhem and disparity that would emerge from India's globalisation, Rana Dasgupta shows us a city's rebirth, for better and worse, through the eyes of its people. Capital is a book for our times.

Series: Canons

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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781837263592

Publisher: Canongate Books

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 12 February 2026

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Canongate Canons

Edition: Main - Canons

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 29.0mm

Width: 135.0mm

Height: 204.0mm

Weight: 378g

Pages: 480

About the Author

Rana Dasgupta is the author of the short story collection, Tokyo Cancelled, which was shortlisted for the 2005 John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, the novel Solo, which won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize 2010 for Best Book, and After Nations. Capital, his first work of non-fiction, was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize 2015 and the Ondaatje Prize in 2015. He was awarded the Windham Campbell Prize in 2025.

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