Digg This Story   Jun 28 07

/ by rich auger

Londonstani, the first book by author Gautam Malkani, is a story about the Asian (desis) youth culture of London. Although you will find yourself in a different cultural world, the real brilliance of the book is that it transcends the Asian culture and dives into our own youth. You start to relate the characters to yourself or the people you grew up with whether they were friend or foe. Heavily laced in cultural and youth slang, you will find yourself testing your new vocabulary on those around you as they stare at you blankly or beg you to stop.

The real reason for this post however, is not to tout the book itself (although it is a quick and entertaining read). It's to share with you the reason I purchased it in the first place. HarperCollins, to pump up the book before its release, took a page from the movie industry and created a visually stunning book trailer to be shown online. The Flash trailer combines photographic stills, typography and beats to set the mood for Londonstani's storylines and locations. Take another look at the trailer when you are done reading the book and you will find yourself pulling out every image and relating it to different scenes as though you were a character in the book yourself. Kudos to HarperCollins for realizing who the target audience was and how best to reach them.

Check out the trailer.