Jeyamohan – författare

A dazzling postcolonial inversion of Heart of Darkness set during the Great Indian Famine of 1878 that recounts its devastating cost to both life and human dignity.It is 1878, and Aiden Byrne, an Irish police officer in Madrasapatnam, loyal servant to the crown and Queen Victoria, knows that there is no danger that he ought to fear in this heatblasted and famine-devastated land.But when he discovers two laborers from Tudor Ice Company being brutally whipped in the countryside, he is dragged into a world whose surface he has only skimmed before. He sees the horrific conditions under which the local workers, members of the lowest rung of the caste system, process the mammoth blocks of ice that are carved out of frozen New England lakes and transported to India for use in the drinks and iceboxes of the colonial forces.When the two workers disappear-presumably killed-Byrne is approached by Kathavarayan, a charismatic young activist belonging to a lower caste, who is looking to put things right. He sets Byrne off on a journey that brings him face-to-face with the bloody toll of the famine raging through the country-one that would kill more than eight million people before it was done-and forces him to grapple with his own precarious and complicated role in the machinery of the British empire.In White Elephant, Jeyamohan uses surreal prose and vivid imagery to deliver a searing account of a crucial moment in the history of a nation, a city, and a people.

A stunning new literary vision of India. In these dozen minutely observed stories, Jeyamohan juxtaposes the great themes of Indian life - politics, religion, caste, violence - in illuminating relation to the quiet internal machinery of his characters.In “A Hundred Armchairs,' a bureaucrat receives the news that his mother has been found in a hospital for the indigent. As he rushes to her side, he is visited by memories of his nomadic youth with her, of her violence and mania, her wild fear for his safety, his forced adoption and education by a local guru. In 'Elephant Doctor,' a young man spends a restive night at an elephant camp waiting for a call from the office of the president; he has spent months advocating for an award for his idol, Dr. Krishnamurthy, one of the country's preeminent conservationists. But in the still hours of the morning he's haunted by questions about the doctor's enigmatic ways and the strange magic of this dark corner of the forest.The tales in Stories of the True live in the shadowland between truth and fiction, blending real life with the prismatic effect of Jeyamohan’s volatile and incisive prose. The result is a collection that shimmers with life and wisdom and a truth greater than truth all on its own.

"Jeyamohan is one of India's most resourceful makers of literary art" PANKAJ MISHRAOur understanding of contemporary India is incomplete without reading Jeyamohan" VIVEK SHANBHAG, author of Ghachar GhocharThe year is 1878 and the south of India is in the grip of a devastating famine.Aiden Byrne, an Irish police officer and loyal servant to the Crown, encounters two laborers being brutally whipped by the roadside. Their tormentor is an overseer from the Tudor Ice Company, where mammoth blocks of ice, harvested from frozen New England lakes, are broken down for British banquets by workers from the lowest rung of the caste system.When those same laborers are found murdered, Aiden and Kathavarayan, a charismatic young activist, set out on a journey that brings them face-to-face with the bloody toll of the famine raging through the country. Once so fearless in this heat-blasted land, Aiden will now be forced to grapple with his own precarious role in the machinery of empire.A vivid reimagining of the first labor uprising in modern Indian history, White Elephant is a soul-searing novel by one of India's greatest living writers, offering a stirring, indelible argument against the pitiless march and corrupting influence of empire.Translated from the Tamil by Priyamvada Ramkumar

"e;Jeyamohan is one of India's most resourceful makers of literary art"e; PANKAJ MISHRAOur understanding of contemporary India is incomplete without reading Jeyamohan"e; VIVEK SHANBHAG, author of Ghachar GhocharThe year is 1878 and the south of India is in the grip of a devastating famine.Aiden Byrne, an Irish police officer and loyal servant to the Crown, encounters two laborers being brutally whipped by the roadside. Their tormentor is an overseer from the Tudor Ice Company, where mammoth blocks of ice, harvested from frozen New England lakes, are broken down for British banquets by workers from the lowest rung of the caste system.When those same laborers are found murdered, Aiden and Kathavarayan, a charismatic young activist, set out on a journey that brings them face-to-face with the bloody toll of the famine raging through the country. Once so fearless in this heat-blasted land, Aiden will now be forced to grapple with his own precarious role in the machinery of empire.A vivid reimagining of the first labor uprising in modern Indian history, White Elephant is a soul-searing novel by one of India's greatest living writers, offering a stirring, indelible argument against the pitiless march and corrupting influence of empire.Translated from the Tamil by Priyamvada Ramkumar