An extract from Pyre by Perumal Murugan, translated by Aniruddhan Vasudevan
Read an extract from Pyre, Perumal Murugan’s powerful novel, which was longlisted for the International Booker Prize 2023
Perumal Murugan
Perumal Murugan is a professor of Tamil literature and one of India's most respected and bestselling literary writers.
The author of 11 novels and five collections each of short stories and poetry, Murugan was born in rural Tamil Nadu and continues to live and work there. He has twice been longlisted for the National Book Award for Translated Literature - for One Part Woman and The Story of a Goat - both of which are published by Pushkin Press, and is a Vice President of PEN International. In 2015, Murugan declared himself ‘dead’ and announced his retirement from writing following protests, litigation and the burning of his book Maadhorubaagan by caste-based groups. At a court case in 2016 centred on the book, the judge ruled: ‘Let the author be resurrected to what he is best at. Write.’ For Murugan, the statement was both ‘a command and a benediction’ to resume writing.
Perumal Murugan’s novel Pyre was longlisted for the International Booker Prize 2023, announced on March 14 2023.
An intercaste couple elopes, setting in motion a story of terrifying foreboding. Perumal Murugan is a great anatomist of power and, in particular, of the deep, deforming rot of caste hatred and violence. With flashes of fable, his novel tells a story specific and universal: how flammable are fear and the distrust of others.
— The International Booker Prize 2023 panel of judges on 'Pyre'
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Young love is pitted against social discrimination in Perumal Murugan’s powerful and compelling novel, set in the rural Tamil Nadu of the 1980s.
