The Man-eater of Malgudi

This is the story of Nataraj, who earns his living as a printer in the enchanted world of Malgudi, that slumbering Southern Indian village whose peace has been so often amusingly and outrageously disturbed by Narayan. Nataraj and his close friends, a poet and a journalist, find their congenial days disturbed when Vasu, a powerful taxidermist, moves in with his stuffed hyenas and pythons, and brings his dancing women up the printer's private stairs. When Vasu, in search of larger game, threatens the life of a temple elephant that Nataraj has befriended, complications ensue that are both comic and calamitous.A not unwelcome death occurs; murder is suspected and Nataraj and his friends point guilty fingers at each other and those around them. The suspense never slackens in this bizarre, yet moving tale."Pungent as a Madras curry, gay with the rueful wry gaiety of Tamils and Telugus, Mr. Narayan's The Man-Eater of Malgudi makes a most rich and satisfying mixture. Hilarity and high seriousness are rarely yoked together in partnership as effectively as they are in this book... Mr. Narayan's writing is limpid and beautifully unforced..." - Times Literary Supplement