{"title":"Perumal Murugan","description":"\u003cp\u003eDiscover the luminous, unflinching world of \u003cstrong\u003ePerumal Murugan\u003c\/strong\u003e, one of the most celebrated and important Tamil literary voices of our time — a novelist, poet, and scholar whose deeply rooted, beautifully written fiction has brought the landscapes, lives, and inner worlds of rural Tamil Nadu to readers across India and the world. Writing in Tamil with a lyrical intensity and moral courage that has drawn comparisons to the greatest regional literary traditions, Murugan explores caste, desire, faith, tradition, and the quiet dignity of ordinary lives with extraordinary power and compassion. His novel \u003cem\u003eOne Part Woman\u003c\/em\u003e (\u003cem\u003eMaadhorubaagan\u003c\/em\u003e), a tender and devastating story of a childless couple in early twentieth-century Tamil Nadu, became the centre of a national controversy when it was targeted by caste groups, leading Murugan to publicly declare the death of his literary self — before returning to writing with renewed purpose. His other celebrated works include \u003cem\u003ePoonachi, or the Story of a Black Goat\u003c\/em\u003e, a fable of extraordinary beauty and political resonance; \u003cem\u003eTrial by Silence\u003c\/em\u003e; and \u003cem\u003eCurrent Show\u003c\/em\u003e. His books are available in English translation through Penguin and other publishers. Essential reading for lovers of world literature, Indian fiction, and stories that illuminate the human condition with rare honesty and grace.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"the-land-and-the-shadows","title":"The Land and the Shadows","description":"\u003cp\u003eCinema, for Perumal Murugan, was never just flickering images on a screen. It was a field of experience, a gathering ground, a mirror held up to the land itself. In The Land and the Shadows, he returns to the theatres of his youth and to the decades when Tamil cinema became inseparable from the life of the people―the 1950s through the 1970s.Here, he recalls his boyhood labour in a small-town cinema hall, the thrill of posters and projectors, the songs carried on village winds. From those vivid fragments, Murugan opens out a portrait of Tamil society in transition, where poverty and caste met desire and aspiration in the common darkness of the theatre. The screen was both escape and education, its heroes and heroines shaping speech, gesture and imagination across class and community.Part memoir, part ethnography, this is a record of a world that has almost vanished―those public spaces where lives once overlapped, where cinema forged unlikely intimacies and collective dreams. Murugan’s voice, at once personal and self-effacing, turns memory into history, and history into story.Translated with fidelity and grace by Gita Subramanian, The Land and the Shadows brings us Perumal Murugan in a new key: as witness to cinema’s place in the making of modern Tamil Nadu, and as chronicler of a society learning to see itself in the play of light and shadow.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Dusky's Shrine","offers":[{"title":"Hardback","offer_id":46035444432953,"sku":"9780143469230","price":719.0,"currency_code":"INR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0795\/3367\/0457\/files\/81SeuhlNtuL._SL1500.jpg?v=1782812805"},{"product_id":"students-etched-in-memory","title":"Students Etched in Memory","description":"\u003cp\u003eStudents Etched in Memory is a remarkable collection of forty essays by Perumal Murugan, translated with sensitivity and grace by V. Iswarya. While Murugan is widely acclaimed for his novels such as One Part Woman and Pyre, this collection reveals another facet of his work―as a teacher, mentor and keen observer of young minds.In these deeply personal essays, Murugan offers an intimate look into the lives of college students from small-town Tamil Nadu. Each is a portrait of youth, where the pursuit of education becomes a journey not just of academic growth, but of self-discovery. Through his sharp yet compassionate observations, Murugan captures the delicate balance between the quest for knowledge and the search for identity, belonging and purpose.With profound empathy for his students, Murugan recognizes that education is far more than textbooks and exams. Against the backdrop of contemporary India, the essays reflect the broader challenges facing students―pressures of family expectations, class, caste and the tension between tradition and modernity. Yet, they carry a sense of hope―of education as a pathway to change, upward mobility and the possibility of personal transformation.Once again, Perumal Murugan demonstrates his mastery in capturing the lived experiences of individuals navigating the shifting currents of change.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Dusky's Shrine","offers":[{"title":"Hardback","offer_id":46035627081785,"sku":"9780143468066","price":539.0,"currency_code":"INR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0795\/3367\/0457\/files\/81-croZ8NML._SL1500.jpg?v=1782813485"},{"product_id":"fire-bird-winner-of-the-jcb-prize-for-literature-2023","title":"Fire Bird: Winner of the Jcb Prize for Literature 2023","description":"\u003cp\u003eWinner of the JCB Prize for Literature 2023Fire Bird is a masterfully crafted tale of one man's search for the elusive concept of permanence. Muthu has his world turned upside down when his father divides the family land, leaving him with practically nothing and causing irreparable damage to his family's bonds. Through the unscrupulous actions of his once-revered eldest brother, Muthu is forced to leave his once-perfect world behind and seek out a new life for himself, his wife and his children.In this transcendental novel, Perumal Murugan draws from his own life experiences of displacement and movement, and explores the fragility of our fundamental attraction to permanence and our ultimately futile efforts to attain it. Translated from the nearly untranslatable Aalandapatchi, which alludes to a mystical bird in Tamil, the titular fire bird perfectly encapsulates the illusory and migratory nature of this pursuit.Fire Bird is a thought-provoking and beautifully written exploration of the human desire for stability in an ever-changing world.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Dusky's Shrine","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":46035934478393,"sku":"9780143472513","price":359.0,"currency_code":"INR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0795\/3367\/0457\/files\/813a5-HNEiL._SL1500.jpg?v=1782814681"},{"product_id":"one-part-woman","title":"One part woman","description":"\u003cp\u003eKali and Ponna's efforts to conceive a child have been in vain. Hounded by the taunts and insinuations of others, all their hopes come to converge on the chariot festival in the temple of Ardhanareeswara, the half-female god. Everything hinges on the one night when rules are relaxed and consensual union between any man and woman is sanctioned. This night could end the couple's suffering and humiliation. But it will also put their marriage to the ultimate test.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Dusky's Shrine","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":46036976697401,"sku":"9780143423546","price":269.0,"currency_code":"INR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0795\/3367\/0457\/files\/81wYxlLi8_L._SL1500_5d08af52-407c-41a1-9c7b-fdef3ae1d6e9.jpg?v=1782818066"},{"product_id":"sanatan","title":"Sanatan","description":"\u003cp\u003eSanatan is the gut-wrenching story of Bhimnak Mahar and his ilk, who have been subjected to barbaric abuse and inhuman discrimination by the upper castes over centuries. The story begins with the young Bhimnak in pre-Independence India. It then traverses time and geographical boundaries to end with Bhimnak’s grandson. The circular narrative pattern is reflective of the endless cycle of pain that the Mahars are unable to break free from, no matter how hard they try, no matter where they go, no matter if they change their identity and religion. Using myths, the Puranas and historical texts as resources, Sharankumar Limbale rewrites Dalit history in this novel as he attempts to tell the truth, with an intention to build what he calls ‘a new and progressive social order’. Limbale not just brings his reader face to face with uncomfortable realities, he also suggests what could be an alternative social order in the future.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Dusky's Shrine","offers":[{"title":"Hardback","offer_id":46037512814649,"sku":"9780143465768","price":539.0,"currency_code":"INR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0795\/3367\/0457\/files\/61psImqLpLL._SL1000_238c4fc3-1f23-48e9-8ec6-e7f724c3469c.jpg?v=1782820234"},{"product_id":"story-that-must-not-be-told","title":"The Story That Must Not Be Told","description":"\u003cp\u003eA strong literary fiction title, critically much acclaimed and shortlisted for two major prizes, now available in paperback. Touches on subjects of much contemporary relevance like urban poverty. Shortlisted for the Man Asian Literary Prize 2008 and The DSC Prize for South Asian Literature 2012. Simon Jesukumar, an ageing widower in Chennai, passionately aspires to do something worthwhile with what remains of his life. Dominated by his wife during their otherwise happy married life, he struggles to break free from the haunting memories of the iron hand with which she led him. His aspirations are stirred by his nagging guilt about the slum, optimistically called Sitara, next door. As the story plunges into the heart of the slum, it brings together the most unlikely characters. Simon begins to understand why good intentions and small acts of mercy are no answer to the problems of a section of humanity he never knew. Simon’s dilemma is ours: How can, or how should, the well-off help the poor? Coming from one of the finest chroniclers of modern Indian life, The Story That Must Not be Told holds up a mirror to a moving, unseen, and deeply unsettling reality. Quotes ‘An absorbing read’—The Hindu ‘Poignant, unsettling and… thought-provoking’—Deccan Herald ‘In its panoramic ambition, The Story That Must Not Be Told is reminiscent of the classic 19th-century realist novel’—Biblio ‘The Story That Must Not Be Told should rightfully find its way in any compilation of ten best Indian novels in English of all times’—Reading Hour About the Author Kavery Nambisan is from Coorg district of Karnataka. She graduated from St John’s Medical College, Bangalore, and did her surgical training and FRCS in England. Since then she has devoted most of her working life to practice in rural India and has worked as a surgeon in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. She is the author of several children’s books and novels. Her latest novel, The Story That Must Not Be Told, was shortliste\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Dusky's Shrine","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":46038199271481,"sku":"9780143419099","price":359.0,"currency_code":"INR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0795\/3367\/0457\/files\/51AL_4MMvTL_0f46cae6-06d6-4f33-8820-c8831f6ec135.jpg?v=1782822373"},{"product_id":"rising-heat","title":"Rising Heat","description":"\u003cp\u003eYoung Selvan's life is no longer the same. His family's ancestral land has been sold in order to make way for the construction of a housing colony. Now the verdant landscape of his childhood has been denuded, while Selvan and his family are compelled to move to much smaller lodgings. In the ensuing years, as the pressures of their situation simmer to a boil, Selvan observes his family undergo dramatic shifts in their fortunes as greed and jealousy threaten to overshadow their lives.Murugan's first novel, which launched a splendid literary career, is a tour de force. Now translated for the first time, it poses powerful questions about the human cost of relentless urbanization in the name of progress.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Dusky's Shrine","offers":[{"title":"Hardback","offer_id":46038443130937,"sku":"9780670093663","price":629.0,"currency_code":"INR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0795\/3367\/0457\/files\/81sgHc3Bf2L._SL1500_dd0f79a6-3857-4da6-8498-341335412773.jpg?v=1782822710"},{"product_id":"pyre","title":"Pyre","description":"\u003cp\u003e'Pyre glows with as much power as [One Part Woman] did, and adds immeasurable value to contemporary Indian literature'-The HinduSaroja and Kumaresan are in love. After a hasty wedding, they arrive in Kumaresan's village, harboring a dangerous secret: their marriage is an inter-caste one, likely to upset the village elders should they get to know of it. Kumaresan is naively confident that all will be well. But nothing is further from the truth. Despite the strident denials of the young couple, the villagers strongly suspect that Saroja must belong to a different caste. It is only a matter of time before their suspicions harden into certainty and, outraged, they set about exacting their revenge.A devastating tale of innocent young love pitted against chilling savagery, Pyre conjures a terrifying vision of intolerance.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Dusky's Shrine","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":46039840194617,"sku":"9780143429012","price":269.0,"currency_code":"INR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0795\/3367\/0457\/files\/71b6sxkyjtS._SL1500_dfa68712-9773-4a06-a294-b12ca70849d7.jpg?v=1782835064"},{"product_id":"black-coffee-in-a-cococnut-shell","title":"Black Coffee in a Cococnut Shell","description":"\u003cp\u003eCaste, 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.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Dusky's Shrine","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":46040157487161,"sku":"9789392099830","price":359.0,"currency_code":"INR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0795\/3367\/0457\/files\/71alZUKpj2L._SL1500.jpg?v=1782839783"}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0795\/3367\/0457\/collections\/image_4f9ce280-9ac7-4dce-829e-c374a2b3981e.png?v=1782673907","url":"https:\/\/duskysshrine.com\/collections\/perumal-murugan.oembed","provider":"Dusky's Shrine","version":"1.0","type":"link"}