Perumal Murugan – författare

Saroja and Kumaresan are young and in love. After meeting in a small southern Indian town, where Kumaresan works at a soda bottling shop, they quickly marry before returning to Kumaresan's family village to build a new life together. But they are harbouring a dangerous secret: Saroja is from a different caste than Kumaresan, and if the villagers find out, they will both be in grave peril.Faced with venom from her mother-in-law, and questions from her new neighbours, Saroja tries to adjust to a lonely and uncomfortable life, while Kumaresan struggles to scrape together enough money for them to start over somewhere new. Will their love keep them safe in a hostile world?

A vibrant fable of marriage, caste and social convention from one of the most exciting voices in contemporary Indian fiction'Unexpected and moving' Amitava Kumar, author of Immigrant, Montana'A major Indian writer' New York Times'A captivating story of love and desire' Vivek Shanbhag, author of Ghachar, GhocharKali and Ponna are perfectly content in their marriage, apart from one thing. They are unable to conceive. With local gossip and family disapproval mounting, the increasingly desperate couple consider a more drastic plan. They will attend the annual chariot festival, a celebration of the half-male, half-female god Maadhorubaagan.For one night, the rules of marriage are relaxed, and consensual sex between unmarried men and women is overlooked, for all men are considered gods.Could this be the opportunity that they've been searching for?

A farmer in India is watching the sun set over his village one quiet evening when a mysterious stranger, a giant man who seems more than human, appears on the horizon. He offers the farmer a black goat kid who is the runt of the litter, surely too frail to survive. The farmer and his wife take care of the young she-goat, whom they name Poonachi, and soon the little goat is bounding with joy and growing at a rate they think miraculous.But Poonachi's life is not destined to be a rural idyll: dangers lurk around every corner, and may sometimes come from surprising places, including a government that is supposed to protect the weak and needy. Is this little goat too humble a creature to survive such a hostile world?With allegorical resonance for contemporary society and examining hierarchies of caste and colour, The Story of a Goat is a provocative but heartwarming fable from a world-class storyteller who is finally achieving recognition outside his home country.

Sati säljer läskedrycker i en nedgången provinsbiograf i södra Indien. Dåligt betald och alltid trött söker han en flykt från sin deprimerande verklighet genom marijuana och sällskap av känsliga och desperata pojkar som omväxlande stöder och plågar varandra. Deras liv utspelar sig i utkanten av filmvärlden, i stark kontrast till glansen i tamilsk bio. En djup vänskap med en av pojkarna håller Sati vid liv tills oväntade händelser sänker hans osäkra vardag i totalt kaos.

Caste, as it is experienced in everyday life, is the pièce de résistance of this book. Thirty-two voices narrate how from childhood to adulthood, caste intruded upon their lives—food, clothes, games, gait, love, marriage and every aspect of one's existence including death. Like the editor Perumal Murugan says, caste is like god, it is omnipresent.   The contributors write about the myriad ways in which they have experienced caste. It may be in the form of forgoing certain kinds of food, or eating food at secluded corners of a household, or drinking tea out of a crushed plastic cup, or drinking black coffee in a coconut shell or water poured from above into a cupped hand. Such experiences may also take the form of forbidden streets, friends disapproved of and love denied. And when one leaves behind the fear of caste while living one's life, there is still death to deal with.

En liten pojke springer ivrigt genom mörkret, upplyst endast av det ljusa, ljusa månskenet. Han är på väg till hirsfälten med sin mamma och sin babybror. Medan mamman arbetar försöker han njuta av den månbelysta natten tillsammans med sin nyfunna vän – en herrelös hund – medan hans bror sover...