Why should one read a novel? Hear if from writer S Ramakrishnan at the Coimbatore Book Festival. The Sahitya Akademi Award-winning author will be talking on the subject on day four of the event, which is back in the city after a gap of two years. “Ask any Tamil reader, especially youngsters, what novel they are reading and they will not have an answer,” says Ramakrishnan, “They read essays on social issues, but not novels.”
It is Tamil readers in their 30s and 40s who seek the novel; those in their 20s, do not pick the genre, Ramakrishnan says adding that they perhaps feel that with 300 to 400 pages of text, the novel is too tedious to plod through. “We usually see only 10 to 15 novels releasing per year in Tamil, whereas in English, the number is much higher,” points out Ramakrishnan, adding: “Readers seek knowledge and pick nonfiction; but fail to seek an experience that a novel provides.” The author will be speaking on novels from across the world, as well as from the Tamil and Indian literary circles.
