R. K. Narayan

Rasipuram Krishnaswami Narayanaswami (10 October 1906 – 13 May 2001), better known as R. K. Narayan, was an Indian writer and novelist known for his work set in the fictional South Indian town of Malgudi. He was a leading author of early Indian literature in English along with Mulk Raj Anand and Raja Rao. In 1980, he received the AC Benson Medal from the Royal Society of Literature, and in 1981 he was made an Honorary Member of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. Narayan is the author of more than 200 novels, as well as short stories and plays. His work portrays his characters' social context and everyday life, often in between traditional life and modernity. He has been compared to William Faulkner, who similarly set much of his work in a locale of his own invention and explored ordinary life with humor and compassion. Narayan's short stories have been compared to those of Guy de Maupassant for their compressed narratives. In a career that spanned over 60 years, Narayan received many awards and honours, including the AC Benson Medal from the Royal Society of Literature, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan, India's second- and third-highest civilian awards, and in 1994 the Sahitya Akademi Fellowship, the highest honour of India's National Academy of Letters. He was also nominated to the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Indian Parliament.