Diary of a Malayali Madman


Book Description

A collection of sensitive, world-bending human portraits from short story writer N. Prabhakaran. A research scholar whose notebook reveals a surreal pig farm... A psychologist in search of the truth about one of his clients... An aspiring writer who emulates Gogol... The unforgettable men and women in N. Prabhakaran's stories have an uncanny ability to expose the fault lines between the real and the unreal, the normal and the mad, as they explore their own inner worlds and psychic wounds. A pioneer of the post-modern aesthetic turn, N. Prabhakaran weaves the nitty-gritty of everyday, small-town lives into his imaginative tales. Set in northern Kerala, these five stories are steeped in folklore, nature, factional politics and the intricacies of human relationships. Brilliantly translated by Jayasree Kalathil, Diary of a Malayali Madman marks the very first time this major Indian writer's work is available in English.




Moustache


Book Description

WINNER OF THE JCB PRIZE FOR LITERATURE 2020. 'A novel of epic dimensions ... easily among the most accomplished fictional works in Malayalam.'K. SATCHIDANANDAN Vavachan is a Pulayan who gets the opportunity to play a policeman with an immense moustache in a musical drama. The character appears in only two scenes and has no dialogue. However, Vavachan's performance, and his moustache, terrify the mostly upper-caste audience, reviving in them memories of characters of Dalit power, such as Ravanan. Afterwards, Vavachan, whose people were traditionally banned from growing facial hair, refuses to shave off his moustache. Endless tales invent and reinvent the legend of his magic moustache in which birds roost, which allows its owner to appear simultaneously in different places and disappear in an instant, which grows as high as the sky and as thick as rainclouds -- and turn Vavachan into Moustache, a figure of mythic proportions.Set in Kuttanad, a below-sea-level farming region on the south-west coast of Kerala, the novel is as much a story of this land as it is of Vavachan and its other inhabitants. As they navigate the intricate waterscape, stories unfold in which ecology, power dynamics and politics become key themes. Originally published in Malayalam as Meesha, S. Hareesh's Moustache is a contemporary classic mixing magic, myth and metaphor into a tale of far-reaching resonance.




Above Us the Milky Way


Book Description

Debut novel about a young family forced to flee their war-ravaged homeland, forced to leave behind everything & everyone beloved & familiar. Old family photographs & lush watercolor paintings based on medieval illuminated manuscripts interweave with remembrances, ghost stories/stories of the war dead, & fairy tales to conjure a story of war, of emigration & immigration, the remarkable human capacity to experience love & wonder amidst destruction & loss, & how to create beauty out of horror.







Adam


Book Description

Four Belgian Malinois puppies raised by an ex-serviceman, N. K. Kuruppu, who end up in four different life situations; an old man and a younger man who play a game made out of death notices cut out from newspapers; two men who argue about the inexplicable change of character of an old-time rowdy with fatal consequences; a nurse and her boyfriend who travel to Kerala with the body of her father who died in Bangalore; a man who exploits his friend's disability to satisfy his own bestial needs; a man who finds himself stranded in a supernatural space between life and death; a government employee who is intoxicated by the taste of wild meat and sinks deeper and deeper into the toxic world of hunting; two buffaloes who break away from their butcher and an entire village that chases after them; an old man who rejoices in the death of a sworn enemy who was once his friend. S. Hareesh's Adam presents nine unusual stories about ordinary people, their passions and their diverse destinies in a world where humans, animals and nature collide and conflict, but also console each other. The stories explore the more difficult of human emotions-lust, anger, jealousy, vengeance, greed-in a non-judgemental yet detached manner. Hareesh's unique style of storytelling that mixes astute social observation with an irreverent and sarcastic tone makes these stories invigorating, and pushes the craft of the short story to new and refreshing realms.




Anthropology, Development, and Modernities


Book Description

This book provides a critical review of the varied interpretations of modernity and development supported by original case studies from the Netherlands, the former USSR, Tanzania, Sri Lanka and Guatemala.




Malayali English


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A History of Kerala


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Farewell, Mahatma


Book Description

One day before he is assassinated, Gandhi steps out of Birla House into newly independent Delhi, wanting his approaching death to be a final, redemptive message; Sasi begins to clean up the crime scene after her lover leaves to arrange for the disposal of her husband's body, but suddenly, the wall clock begins to tick backwards, setting off a dramatic reversal of events; resurrected from death by her brother, Nallathangaal roams the forests with her seven children for decades until the love of a carousel man frees her from the curse; Cheenu returns to his beloved wife to find that the years of warped urges in jail have changed him irrevocably. Farewell, Mahatma brings together ten tales that introduce us to the brilliance and distinctiveness of Devibharathi's imagination and craft. These stories explore the dark and dichotomous realities of our history and present, our social and individual lives, deeply probing themes such as freedom, need, desire and the volatile spaces between man and woman. At once unnerving and illuminating, these are short stories at their best.




Diary of an Invasion


Book Description

One of the most important Ukrainian voices throughout the Russian invasion, the author of Death and the Penguin and Grey Bees collects his searing dispatches from the heart of Kyiv. This journal of the invasion, a collection of Andrey Kurkov's writings and broadcasts from Kyiv, is a remarkable record of a brilliant writer at the forefront of a 21st-century war. Andrey Kurkov has been a consistent satirical commentator on his adopted country of Ukraine. His most recent work, Grey Bees, is a dark foreshadowing of the devastation in the eastern part of Ukraine in which only two villagers remain in a village bombed to smithereens. The author has lived in Kyiv and in the remote countryside of Ukraine throughout the Russian invasion. He has also been able to fly to European capitals where he has been working to raise money for charities and to address crowded halls. Kurkov has been asked to write for every English newspaper, as also to be interviewed all over Europe. He has become an important voice for his people. Kurkov sees every video and every posted message, and he spends the sleepless nights of continuous bombardment of his city delivering the truth about this invasion to the world.