R K Narayan

(1906–2001), Indian novelist. Rasipuram Krishnaswami Narayan (professionally R. K. Narayan) was one of India's leading novelists throughout the latter half of the twentieth century. He was born of Tamil Brahman parents in Madras in 1906, but long lived in Mysore City, Karnataka. It is in the latter area that all of his delightful English-language novels are set. His work has been more widely published outside India than that of any of his Indian contemporaries (with the possible exceptions of Salman Rushdie and Arundhati Roy). In the early stages of his career, his work was championed by the British novelist Graham Greene. That such an internationally visible writer should only be known for such highly localized novels (most of them are set in the one fictional Mysorean village of Malgudi) is remarkable. The general tone in all his novels is one of wry humor, as in The Guide (1958), which shows up the tragicomic aspects of the modern Indian penchant for half-baked metaphysics. His first novel was Swami and Friends (1935), and several others of note are The Man-Eater of Malgudi (1962), The Financial Expert, The Bachelor of Arts, Waiting for the Mahatma, and Mr. Sampath. In addition, Narayan wrote an autobiography, My Days (1974), and produced a shortened English prose version of the Mahabharata (1972).