Booksellers touting their wares amid the heavy traffic in the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, have discovered an unusual best-seller.
Adolf Hitler’s autobiography manifesto Mein Kampf is selling as well as Dan Brown’s latest novel, The Lost Symbol.
The street vendors in Dhaka are found at every major road junction and intersection.
Most of the sellers are young boys and many compete with beggars to attract the attention of motorists.
Last week, Mein Kampf did unusually well because many bought the book to give it away as an Eid present.
‘All the rage’
Mabul, 15, is among many boys who risk the chaos of Dhaka’s roads to earn a living selling pirated copies of popular paperbacks.
Among his offerings are The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama, the 9/11 Commission Report – Omissions and Distortions by David Ray Griffin, The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy and copies of Mein Kampf (volumes one and two).
“For some reason Hitler’s book is all the rage among educated people – on a typical day I can sell as many as five or six,” Mabul told the BBC.
Hitler is not as popular as Dan Brown or Amartya Sen among Dhaka’s motorists and their passengers, but there is a constant demand for his book.
