2011 was a robust year for Indian literature keeping authors, publishers and as well as readers busy.

Indian authors won awards and recognitions, sales saw considerable growth, new writers emerged, literary festivals were galore, acclaimed writers visited the country and key appointments were made in top publishing houses.

Among the scores of top books by Indian writers were Amitav Ghosh's "River of Smoke", Aravind Adiga's "Last Man in Tower", David Davidar's "Ithaca", Chetan Bhagat's "Revolution 2020", Amish Tripathi's "The Secret of the Nagas" and Ashwin Sanghi's "Chanakya's Chant".

The year saw congregation of writers and seasoned authors from the country and abroad in events like the Jaipur Literature Festival, Hay festival (Thiruvananthapuram), Kovalam Lit Fest (Kerala) and Goa Arts and Literary Festival.

There were also saw a lot of activities on the literary front on the occasion of Rabindranath Tagore's 150th birth anniversary celebrations.

Indian writers excelled on the awards and recognitions front.

Indian-American physician Siddhartha Mukherjee's acclaimed book on cancer, "The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer" won the prestigious Pulitzer prize in the general non-fiction category.

The jury described the work as an "elegant inquiry, at once clinical and personal, into the long history of an insidious disease that, despite treatment breakthroughs, still bedevils medical science".