Neslin Reads: A Book Blog

TITLE: THE GOAT THIEF AUTHOR: PERUMAL MURUGAN GENRE: SHORT STORIES (TRANSLATED BY N. KALYAN RAMAN)   BLURB Perumal Murugan is one of the best Indian writers today. He trains his unsentimental eye on men and women who live in the margins of our society. He tells their stories with deep sympathy and calm clarity. A lonely night watchman falls in love with the ghost of a rape victim. A terrified young goat thief finds himself surrounded by a mob baying for his blood. An old peasant exhausted by a lifetime of labour is consumed by jealousy and driven to an act of total destruction. Set in the arid kongu landscape of rural Tamil Nadu, these tales illuminate the extraordinary acts that make up everyday life. MY REVIEW "The Goat Thief" is a collection of ten translated short stories  (originally written in the Tamil language)  set up in the outskirts of Tamil Nadu  (A state in India) .  All plots are based on ordinary people's day-to-day life.  A reader may con

TITLE: GOAT DAYS AUTHOR: BENYAMIN GENRE: NOVEL (TRANSLATED) GOODREADS SYNOPSIS : Najeeb’s dearest wish is to work in the Gulf and earn enough money to send back home. He achieves his dream only to be propelled by a series of incidents, grim and absurd, into a slave-like existence herding goat in the middle of the Saudi desert. Memories of the lush, verdant landscape of his village and of his loving family haunt Najeeb whose only solace is the companionship of goats. In the end, the lonely young man contrives a hazardous scheme to escape his desert prison. Goat Days was published to acclaim in Malayalam and became a bestseller. One of the brilliant new talents of Malayalam literature, Benyamin’s wry and tender telling transforms this strange and bitter comedy of Najeeb’s life in the desert into a universal tale of loneliness and alienation. MY REVIEW : "Goat Days" by Benyamin portrays the true story of a person named 'Najeeb' , who kept enslaved i