Book review
Unforgettable stories for children from the masterly pen of R.K. Narayan

After the stupendous success of Malgudi Schooldays, R.K. Narayan’s chronicle of the escapades of Swami and his friends, comes Malgudi Adventures, which contains more delightful stories of children’s adventures in the magical South Indian small town of Malgudi.

There are the memorable stories of Babu, who, in trying to set up the lights for his sisters’ Navaratri display, manages to plunge the entire household into darkness; of a snake charmer boy who grows up with a monkey named Rama as his companion; and of Raju, who decides to become a guide when a train station is built at Malgudi. Also included are the fascinating stories of Balu, who dumps his father’s accounts ledger in the gutter; of a little boy who finds himself lost on the streets of Malgudi late one night; of Chandran, who falls head over heels in love on the banks of the Sarayu one evening; and of the hilarious sequence of events that unfolds when Raja the tiger decides to seek refuge in the local school.


About the author R.K. Narayan (1906-2001) was born in Madras and educated there and at Maharajah’s College, Mysore. His first novel was Swami and Friends (1935). In 1980 R.K. Narayan was awarded the A.C. Benson medal by the Royal Society of Literature and was made Honorary Member of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. In 1989 he was made member of the Rajya Sabha. In 2000 the Padma Vibhushan was conferred on him. The novelist places himself firmly among the ordinary people, breaking down the boundaries between the real life outside his fiction and the life within the fiction. Narayan's small town and its characters have a universal appeal. 'The grand old man of Indo-Anglian writing, and one of the greatest English language writers of the last century... There are no last words on such maestros.' —The Tribune