It speaks to the prolificity of Perumal Murgan and the burgeoning global appetite for his work that two of his books were launched within a month of each other: Fire Bird (translated by Janani Kannan), followed by Sandalwood Soap and Other Stories (translated by Kavitha Muralidharan). Incidentally, Fire Bird also finds itself in the shortlist of The JCB Prize for Literature, the winner of which will be announced later this month.
There is a perceptible and growing hankering for local, earthy stories that transcend, through sleight of word, the particularities they are set in. Invariably, the hero while still entangled in the process of making a living, unexpectedly rises to be an Everyman, appealingly simple, and yet, universal. Quite like Muthu, in Fire Bird, forced out of comfort by his family, striking out like a pioneer of sorts, marking new territories and lands, displaced and trying to blend in, in a new land. Or, even Velatha, the oracle of sorts, in the short story ‘Magamuni’ that features in Sandalwood Soap. At some point, the readers are cheering the protagonists on, willing them to succeed, vanquishing the evil or pettiness that tries to cow them down.
