Hollywood by storm and London literary circles toast Arundhati Roy, Asians can rightly feel regional pride.

CNN: Cultural Shock

In October, a writer, Arundhati Roy, suggested Kashmiris might have legitimate complaints, and that Pakistan might have a justifiable interest in Kashmir.

ECONOMIST: Kashmir's troubles

And then there is Arundhati Roy, the latest superstar from the subcontinent.

CNN: The New Masters

Ms Arundhati is the only non-American on the American hardback list.

ECONOMIST: What the world is reading

To take a more recent example, Arundhati Roy, India's Booker-prize novelist, not long ago wrote a long and impassioned article in one of India's weekly magazines portraying capitalists, especially foreign ones, as plunderers.

ECONOMIST: India��s choices

The Subcontinent also holds a special cachet for publishers, both as a market and as a source of English-language writers, especially following the international success of authors like Salman Rushdie, Vikram Seth and Arundhati Roy.

CNN: Once Again, With Attitude

Vikram Seth from Vienna, Rohinton Mistry from Toronto, Amitav Ghosh from New York, Arundhati Roy from Amsterdam, Vikram Chandra from Bombay and the most illustrious of them all, Salman Rushdie, from his latest hideout, wherever that was.

CNN: The New Masters