Sandalwood Soap and Other Stories

Translator Kavitha Muralidharan says Perumal Murugan’s writing offers deep immersion into the lives of the people but without embellishment. The characters in these short stories revel in the ordinariness of life. He marries absurdity and pathos as he returns to his old themes of caste and rural and semi-rural Tamil Nadu.

Beyond the India that makes it to news lies an intricate cultural universe shaped by events, thoughts and people that have been waylaid in our quests for mainstream narratives. ‘Another India’ opens up the varied dimensions of the past, discloses the subtle facets of religious cosmologies, reveals the plurality within Hinduism and suggests ways of reengaging with tradition.