R.K. Narayan was born in Madras, South India, in 1907. A Brahmin by birth (a Hindu priest caste), Narayan was trained in both Sanskrit (as part of his training in Hinduism) and English, although his mother tongue was Tamil, a language spoken by over sixty million people in India. Narayan published his first novel (in English) in 1935, during the turbulent division of India. His writing ranges from re-tellings of classical Hindu myths and stories to essays, short stories and novels.

Unlike some other Indian authors of the twentieth century, Narayan did not actively avoid writing about the immense political or economic strife of his time and culture, although his primary focus was the day-to-day lives of ordinary Indian people. These depictions of Indian life lend Narayan's work a sense of timelessness, while still recording the forces of change throughout India. Narayan's work has gained an international...