It was World Book Day on Friday and what an irony, Malayalam, a rich language with a growing number of books, writers and readers, witnessed its ‘first audio first’ book last week and the second one on World Book Day itself, on April 23. Yes, the hard copies of Rebecca, a novel by journalist Rajeev Sivasankar and Kadalneelam, memoirs by Jayachandran Mokeri, will follow the suit on a later date. Jayachandran Mokeri’s Kadalneelam’s audio book was released on April 16 while Rajeev’s novel’s audio book was released on Friday, both at the world’s most popular audio book and e-book streaming platform Storytel which works on a subscription model.
Mokeri was in news sometime back when he was wrongly jailed in Maldives where he was a teacher and his subsequent memoirs titled Takkijja had even won Sahithya Akademi Award. In Kadalneelam, his new book, only available in audio form for the time being, Mokeri writes about his life after he was freed. For Storytel, it was the well-known Carnatic musician Rajeev Nair has read the novel.
On the other hand, a journalist by profession, Rajeev Sivasankar is an established novelist now with titles including Thamovedam, Maraporul, Praanasancharam, Nagaphanam, Deivamaratthile Ila, Pennarash, Kalpramanam and Kunjalithira. Of these, Kunjalithira, Nagaphanam, Thamovedam and Pranasancharam were already available in audio forms in Storytel. The novel was read by Sreelakshmi Jayachandran, an RJ. Rebecca is a thriller spun around an actual incident that shocked Kerala sometime back. The protagonist the novel is named after, a twice-widowed septuagenarian, lives in a remote hamlet of Punchakurinji, in her Pathekkar house flanked by high-walls with a pack of mysteries around her.
Storytel is an audiobook and eBook app streaming service launched in India on 27th Nov 2017. The company is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden and currently present in 22 markets across the globe with a subscriber base of over 1.5 million globally, hosting titles for every age group across a diverse set of genres such as personal development, history, business, romance, thriller, spirituality, horror, drama, adventure, etc. In India, the app currently hosts more than 2 lac+ audiobooks and eBooks across 10 languages namely English, Hindi, Marathi, Urdu, Bengali, Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, Assamese, Kannada. The Storytel app can be subscribed at INR299 per month. Under the monthly subscription, the subscriber gets access to unlimited stories in 10 languages ( English, Hindi, Marathi, Urdu, Bengali, Assamese, Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, Kannada)
Storytel is one of the world’s largest subscribed audiobook and e-book streaming services and offers listening and reading of more than 500 000 titles on a global scale.
