Author: M T Vasudevan Nair
Translator(s): V Abdulla
Publisher: Orient Longman
Year: 2004
Language: English
Pages: 192
ISBN/UPC (if available): 978-81-250-2597-9
Description
Kuttiedathi and other Stories is a collection of the finest stories of M T Vasudevan Nair, available for the first time in English translation. Ordinary middle class lives and sufferings of northern Kerala have seldom been so engagingly told as in Nair’s fiction. If the lead story Kuttiedathi mixes tragic memory and domestic martyrdom, When the Doors of Heaven Open plays out another life upon which centre a group of lives, all selfish, caring, and indifferently by turns. Strange, unfathomable bonds of passion are the theme of Insight, another story in this collection. Nair’s enviable telling often makes it hard for us to distinguish between tenses and points of view. We touch, and are deeply touched by the survivors of these little tragedies of the soul.
REVIEWS
Then stories collected here in English translation by the veteran and seasoned translator
V Abdulla constitute some of the most well-known stories of Vasudevan Nair, fairly representative of his opus. Spread over a broad span of time from 1962 to 2000, they reflect the built-in-variety of his fictional concerns and the changing tones of his narration. A true artist, careful about the generic nature of short fiction, he attends to the minutest details of his work here more than perhaps in his longer works.
-AYYAPPA PANIKER
Contents
FOREWORD
Kuttiedathi
Bondage
The Enemy
Red Earth
Once Again in Search of a Refuge
The Sale
When the Doors of Heaven Open
Kadugannawa: A Travel Note
The Deluge
Insight Glossary