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Description:
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In the last year of this millennium, R.K. Narayan, the grand old man of Indian literature, turns 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. Narayana's pen. It contains The Man-eater of Malgudi, arguably the greatest novel Narayan has ever written, which tells the story of 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 for himself, to gems like An Astologer'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
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