Age Group: 9 - 12 Years, 12+ Years

Description:

Set in Narayan's fictional South Indian town of Malgudi, this celebrated 1958 novel traces the unlikely transformation of Raju, a glib and charming railway tourist guide. Raju falls for Rosie, the neglected dancer-wife of a cold, scholarly archaeologist, and becomes the manager of her glittering rise to fame as a classical dancer — until his own dishonesty lands him in prison. Released and adrift, he drifts to a riverside village where the locals mistake him for a holy man. Drawn deeper into the role he never sought, Raju finds himself undertaking a fast meant to break a drought, and reluctant deceiver slowly becomes something close to a genuine saint. By turns comic and profound, the novel explores hypocrisy, reinvention and redemption, closing on a famously ambiguous note that has fascinated readers for decades. A landmark of Indian writing in English.