R. K. Narayan

R. K.

Narayan invented a make-believe town in south India called Malgudi. Inside that town lived a curious boy named Swami, his best friends, a school teacher, a wise old sweet-seller, a nervous tiger, and many other unforgettable people.

Narayan wrote about them in gentle English, with quiet humour, and made Malgudi feel as real as any place on the map. When you finish one of his books, you feel like you have just come back from a long visit to Malgudi.

Rasipuram Krishnaswami Iyer Narayanaswami — R. K.

Narayan — was born in 1906 in Madras and lived most of his life in Mysore. He wrote in English, at a time when few Indians did, and created the fictional south-Indian town of Malgudi that appears in fourteen of his novels and many short stories.

His first novel, 'Swami and Friends' (1935), introduced Malgudi to readers, and works like 'The Bachelor of Arts', 'The English Teacher', 'The Guide' and 'The Vendor of Sweets' followed over the decades. 'The Guide' won the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1960.

His warm, observant style, encouraged early on by his friend the English writer Graham Greene, made him one of the most loved Indian writers in English. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature several times and was awarded the Padma Vibhushan in 2000.

His stories were also adapted into the beloved TV series 'Malgudi Days'.