Waves

A superb collection of stories from a modern Indian master! One of the most versatile and innovative among contemporary Tamil writers, Sundara Ramaswamy’s early stories, written between 1951 and 1966, focus on ordinary people leading ordinary lives and are full of gems by way of characterization: the policeman and the priest of the Nadi Krishna temple in ‘Prasadam’, and Varadan and Joswyn in ‘True Love’ remain unforgettable, in spite of their pedestrian lives. Written in the 1970s, clouded by the aftermath of the Bangladesh war and the Emergency, in the later stories—‘Intoxication’, ‘Waves’—the plots turn darker and more complex. Surprising us with their twists and turns, raising uncomfortable questions, and yet touched by a fine sense of humour and humanity, the stories in this collection belong with the best in the genre.