Selected Fiction

A superb collection of fiction from one of India's greatest living writers

Some of the stories included in this collection are:

-The Legends of Khasak
-The Saga of Dharmapuri
-The Infinity of Grace

O.V. Vijayan is one of the most brilliant and original of the contemporary Indian authors. His fiction, written in Malayalam, is complex and poetic, a sumptuous blend of myth, dark humour, eroticism, mystical insights and a uniquely Indian brand of magic realism. This collection brings together for the first time all four of Vijayan's books translated into English so far. In his much-acclaimed first novel €˜The Legends of Khasak', Ravi, a schoolteacher, arrives in the remote village of Khasak and is gradually engulfed by the dreams and fables of that ancient land. In the controversial political allegory €˜The Saga of Dharmapuri', the tyrannical President of Dharmapuri and Siddhaartha, a travelling mystic and messiah, engage in an unending symbolic battle. In the award-winning €˜The Infinity of Grace', Kunjunni, a journalist, goes to Calcutta to cover the Bangladesh war, and attempts to reconnect with his estranged wife and daughter who live there. Through the personal trauma that follows, he arrives at a transcendental understanding of life and the harmony implicit in apparently chaotic events.

The final section of this volume comprises twenty-one short stories €"which include classics such as €˜After the Hanging', €˜Oil', €˜Wind Flowers', €˜Anachronisms' and €˜The Foetus'. Together, they bear testimony to Vijayan's skills as an unusually innovative and evocative writer of romances, parables and tales of the supernatural.
€˜A definitive collection, Selected Fiction is like a good piece of halwa. You'll never want it to end. And by the time you're through with it you will be a member of the Vijayan fan club.'
€"The Week
Anthology