A Town Called Malgudi1

Author: R.K. Narayan?

ISBN: 0670889512?

Type: Hardback

Page:?664

Language: English

Right: Indian Subcontinent only

About the book:

In 1999, R.K. Narayan, the grand old man of Indian literature, turned ninety-three. In a writing career spanning seven decades, he has enthralled and entertained generations of readers with his deftly etched characters, his uniquely stylized language and his wry sense of humour. A storyteller par excellence, Narayan??s greatest achievement perhaps lies in creating and peopling the imagined landscapes of a town called Malgudi, located somewhere in South India, which has come alive in story after story in such a way that it has now become a part of modern Indian folklore.

This collection brings between two covers some of the most memorable fiction that has emerged from R.K. Narayan??s pen. It contains ??The Man-eater of Malgudi??, arguably the greatest novel Narayan has ever written, which tells the story of Nataraj, owner of a small printing press, and his house guest Vasu, a taxidermist, who moves into Nataraj??s attic with a menagerie of dead animals. There is also ??Talkative Man??, a novella that starts off with the arrival on the Delhi train of a stranger in a blue suit who takes up residence in the station waiting-room and refuses to budge. Also included here are some of the most popular and striking short stories Narayan has written: from the celebrated ??A Horse and Two Goats?? and ??Salt and Sawdust??, the tale of a wife who cannot distinguish between salt and sawdust for seasoning and thus leaves her husband with no option but to cook himself, to gems like ??An Astrologer??s Day??, ??The Shelter?? and ??Under the Banyan Tree??, which is about a man called Nambi who has the uncanny ability to mesmerize his audience with his stories, but eventually lapses into silence.

Encapsulating the very best of R.K. Narayan??s remarkable output, this is a fitting tribute to one of the greatest living writers in the English language.

Praise for R.K. Narayan
??Narayan is the novelist I most admire in the English language.??
??Graham Greene

??R.K. Narayan??s city of Malgudi...is the place to go for some of the best, wisest and most affectation-free writing and some of the slyest scenes from the human comedy.??
??Observer

??Like Paul Theroux and V.S. Naipaul, Narayan has a faultless ear for the intricate eccentricities of Indian English.??
??The Times

??Narayan??s comedy ... is classical art, profound in feeling and delicate in control.??
??The New York Times Book Review

?About the author:

R.K. Narayan (1906-2001) was born in Madras and educated there and at Maharajah??s College, Mysore. His first novel was Swami and Friends (1935). In 1980 R.K. Narayan was awarded the A.C. Benson medal by the Royal Society of Literature and was made Honorary Member of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. In 1989 he was made member of the Rajya Sabha. In 2000 the Padma Vibhushan was conferred on him.

The novelist places himself firmly among the ordinary people, breaking down the boundaries between the real life outside his fiction and the life within the fiction. Narayan's small town and its characters have a universal appeal.

'The grand old man of Indo-Anglian writing, and one of the greatest English language writers of the last century... There are no last words on such maestros.'
??The Tribune

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