Mangaluru, Sep 9: South African cricket legend AB de Villiers' much awaited memoir AB - The Autobiography' was cheerfully received by his admirers in this coastal city. Fans thronged to Sapna bookshop on K.S. Rao Road in the city to pick their copy on the very first day of the launch.
AB - The Autobiography' is amongst the biggest non-fiction book releases of the season. It was launched in South Africa last week and 8th September was fixed as the launch date for the Indian edition. “We have been receiving enquiries for the book from last few days. Pan Macmillan is the publisher of this book. We received our stocks only this morning due to the publisher's security protocols,” said Mr. Pritesh, manager of the Sapna's Mangaluru outlet.
Sapna has arranged an attractive display for the book. The book shop is offering special 30% discount on the cover prize of Rs. 599/-. The 288 page book is available at Sapna for Rs. 419/- for a limited period.
The first to pick a copy of the book was Vignesh Rao and his two friends Vikyath Shenoy Basty and Chirag K, who are all fresh out of college. His cousin Abhinav Rao, a 6th standard kid, who had also tagged along got a copy gifted to him.
“I've been a fan of AB from the time of RCB,' said Vikyath Shenoy, adding he had been looking forward to this launch date.
Vignesh Rao had expressed his impatience to lay his hands on the book three days back with a post on Facebook. “I am expecting to learn the secret of being a multitalented sportsman with superhuman abilities,” said Vignesh.
“AB is a good human being. He has fans from all over the world. He is the only reason for RCB's success, apart from Virat Kohli of course,” added Chirag.
For Abhinav Rao getting a copy of the book for himself was a surprise. “AB is a master blaster. I can't wait to go home and read this book,” he said, visibly thrilled.
AB de Villiers, who captains the South African Test and One Day International (ODI) teams, is regarded as the best batsman in the world at present and one of the best of all time. AB de Villiers has scored over 8,000 runs in 98 tests for South Africa, more than 8,000 runs in 190 one-day internationals and more than 40,000 runs in his professional career. He is contracted with Royal Challengers Bangalore in the IPL series.
The book had become one of the most eagerly awaited celebrity titles in recent times, thanks to the cricketer's universal popularity. It rose to Number 35 on the Amazon India charts last week based on pre-publication orders ahead of its launch in the country today. During the books launch in his home country, AB de Villiers had said he was “incredibly humbled” by the huge response his autobiography has been getting in India even before its launch.
A media release from Pan Macmillan describes the book as AB's story, in his own words. The story of the youngest of three talented, sports-mad brothers growing up in Warmbaths, of a boy who excelled at tennis, rugby and cricket, of a youngster who made his international debut at the age of twenty and was then selected in every single test played by South Africa for the next eleven seasons, of a batsman who has started to redefine the art, being ranked among the world's very best in test, ODI and T20.
Comments
Add new comment