People of Gopallapuram - Softcover

Rajanarayanan, Ki

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0143475487 ISBN 13: 9780143475484

Publisher: Penguin Random House India, 2026

Synopsis

People of Gopallapuram is set in an eponymous village as India negotiates independence from the British. The village is going through rapid changes, both in its social structure and economic position as the colonial era wanes and a new India looms in the near future. Lovers, village leaders, tenant farmers and others who make up the village are all affected by this change as they navigate caste barriers development. In Ki Rajanarayanan’s classic ode, translated by Shubashree Desikan, the humble south Indian village comes alive in a visceral, animated way, reminding us of our roots.

About this title

About the Author

Ki Rajanarayanan (1922-2021) was born in a village Idaiseval, near Kovilpatti, in southern Tamil Nadu. This belongs to the “Karisal” or black soil region in the Tamil land. The flavour of the language and life in this region is fresh in this novel, not surprisingly, as Ki Ra is acknowledged to be a doyen of Karisal literature. He won the Sahitya Akademi award for this novel in 1991. His first short story was published in 1958. Since, he published numerous short stories, three novels and several essays. He has compiled a dictionary of dialect of the Black Soil region (Karisal vattaara vazhakku sol agaradhi). For all this, he did not attend school after the seventh class. He moved to Puducherry in 1989. This followed his being appointed as an honorary professor of folklore in the Tamil Department of Pondicherry Central University.

Edition details

• Publisher: Penguin Random House India
• Publication date: 2026
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0143475487
• ISBN 13: 9780143475484
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 256