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Salzburg Global Fellow and award-winning writer Manjiri Prabhu reads from her latest novel The Trail of Four at Schloss Leopoldskron for her European book launch
Schloss Leopoldskron has long been a place of "pure inspiration" - from its original owner, Prince-Archbishop Leopold von Firmian, to theater impresario Max Reinhardt and the Hollywood producers of The Sound of Music, and now for the award-winning Indian crime fiction writer, Manjiri Prabhu.
Described as the "Desi Agatha Christie" and now hailed as India's answer to Dan Brown, Prabhu first came to the Schloss to attend the session From Page to Screen: Adapting Literature to Film in 2002. She remained engaged with Salzburg Global over the years and returned to the Schloss for research purposes in 2014.
The subsequent thriller, The Trail of Four has now been published by Bloomsbury India. With much of the action taking place not only in Salzburg, but directly in Schloss Leopoldskron and featuring the Archbishop, Reinhardt and Salzburg Global Seminar, the Great Hall of the Schloss was a fitting location for the book's European launch.
At the event, held on April 5 in partnership with the local chapter of expat network InterNations, Prabhu gave a reading and signed copies of her book, speaking warmly of the support she has received for her novel from Salzburg Global Seminar, in particular from Director of Marketing and Communications, Thomas Biebl and Hotel Schloss Leopoldskron General Manager, Daniel Szelényi - who features as a character in the novel.
Inspired by her Salzburg Global experience, Prabhu also founded the Pune International Literary Festival (PILF). Since 2016 Salzburg Global Seminar has been an partner of the festival, bringing international Fellows to India. Read more about the 2017 festival here.
Copies of the novel can be bought online or directly from the Reception at Hotel Schloss Leopoldskron.
More about The Trail of Four:
In the thriller Prabhu asks her audience to investigate a secret left behind by one of Europe’s most famous theater directors, Max Reinhardt, the previous owner of Schloss Leopoldskron. The drama unfolds once a three-hundred-year-old heart of a prince-archbishop is taken from its sacred place of burial. In the following series of events, there are threats of the destruction of Salzburg’s ‘Pillars' and a French-Indian investigative journalist, a historian, a police chief, and a hotelier find themselves drawn together to get to the bottom of things, while Salzburg’s future remains in doubt. They have 48 hours to solve Reinhardt's “Trail.”