SERIOUS MEN

Fiction (Literary Fiction) 310 pages

John Murray - June 10, 2010

 

‘Manu Joseph shows how petty jealousies in India can motivate and divide as surely as major societal differences. His skills as a writer are tremendous – he invests even the most ordinary interactions with keenly observed human quirks, and almost every sentence is a joy to read for its ingeniously constructed language. This is a compellingly entertaining novel – witty, subversive, extraordinarily perceptive, deliciously wicked.'
-- Manil Suri, author of THE DEATH OF VISHNU

'An astute comedy of manners...a novelist of serious talent.'
-- Peter Carty, Independent

‘This is arguably the best of the recent crop of novels by Indian writers, on par with Aravind Adiga's The White Tiger (2008) and Rana Dasgupta's Solo (forthcoming, 2011).'
-- Anis Shivani, Huffington Post

A poignant and comic tale of science, dreams and hope, and of two very different serious men.

Ayyan Mani works in the Institute of Theory and Research as a lowly personal assistant to a brilliant, insufferable astronomer, Arvind Acharya, who is obsessed with his theory about microscopic aliens falling to earth, and opposes his colleagues’ plans for radio telescope research. Ayyan Mani is one of the thousands stranded in the slums of Mumbai, an insignificant cog in the Institute’s machinery. Partly to entertain himself, partly to cheer up his work-worn wife, partly to bolster his ten-year-old son’s confidence, he weaves an outrageous fiction around the boy, Adi, setting in motion a chain of events he will not be able to stop.

Mani is an astute observer and sly eavesdropper, who makes sure he knows everything that goes on in the Institute, delighting in ‘the war of the Brahmins’ over their opposing theories. But when the beautiful Dr Oparna Goshmaulik arrives – the first woman ever to work in the Institute – there is more than just a war of science to observe. Despite his age, his loyal wife, and his venerable position Acharya falls foolishly, hopelessly, in love, and Mani, struggling to keep his own dreams alive, sees opportunity in everything.

The subject of vigorous bidding in the UK, SERIOUS MEN will be a lead title for John Murray in 2010. Foreign rights in SERIOUS MEN have been bought by Harper Collins in both Canada and India (in separate deals), Podium in Holland, W.W. Norton in the US, Klett-Cotta in Germany, Thaning & Appel in Denmark, Philippe Rey in France, Edizioni Dedalo in Italy and Laguna in Serbia.