As post-colonial Mayyazhi (Mahe)—where ‘history and time flowed with the water under the rusted iron bridge’—tries to come to terms with its new-found independence, young men leave to seek their fortunes abroad. And many of the older generation, orphaned by the departure of the French, struggle to eke out a living even as they remember their days of plenty under their foreign masters… Caught up in their suffering, Kumaran Vaidyar does everything he can to keep the people of his beloved Mayyazhi from starving, but entrusts his own children to the care of his beloved wife, who is no more. Meanwhile, Father Alphonse waves his magic wand and changes pebbles into candy and waits for his good-for-nothing son to return. Through all this, untroubled by the woes of the elders, Shivan, Shashi and Elsie spend an idyllic childhood in sunny, sleepy Mayyazhi. Until the day of reckoning catches up with them and they pay the price of growing up.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR M. Mukundan
One of the most reputed fiction writers in Malayalam today, M. Mukundan is the author of twenty-seven best-selling novels, novellas and collections of short stories, including Delhi, Haridwaril Manikal Muzhangunnu, Kesavante Vilapangal and Nrittam. Born in 1942, Mukundan made his literary debut when he was twenty-three, publishing his early short stories in the prestigious Mathrubhumi weekly and other periodicals. In 1989, he won the Sahitya Akademi Award for Daivathinte Vikruthikal (God’s Mischief). The novel was made into a feature film and it won the state award for the best film that year. Other awards and honours conferred on Mukundan include the First Crossword Award for Indian language fictions in English translation (Mayyazhipuzhayude Theerangalil, translated into English as On the Banks of the Mayyazhi by Gita Krishnankutty), the Kerala State Award and the Chevalier of the Arts and Letters from the French government. Mukundan lives in Delhi and is the Deputy Cultural Attach? at the French Embassy.
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