R.K. Narayan was an Indian writer famous for writing about scenes in a fictional town in South India called Malgudi which he came up with himself. Narayan was born in Madras and he has 7 siblings. His grandmother gave him the nickname Kunjappa.
He was an avid reader as a child, he often read the works of Dickens, Wodehouse, Arthur Conan Doyle and Thomas Hardy and grew to be a leading author of early Indian literature in English. Some of his short stories about Malgudi were adapted by actor-director Shankar Nag into the television series Malgudi Days. Narayan was happy with the adaptations and complimented the producers for sticking to the storyline from the books.
Some of R.K. Narayan's best books are:
1. The Guide: This is a lovely story based in Malgudi. The novel is about a tour guide who transforms into a spiritual guide. It shows how you can change from someone bad to someone good.
2. Swami and Friends: This is a really sweet story of a ten year old boy named Swaminathan and his friends. He is called Swami throughout the novel and all the events in this book take place in Malgudi.
3. My Dateless Diary: This book is a collection of autobiographical essays by R.K. Narayan. The book is focused on his interactions with the American people and is based on the writings from the daily journal that he maintained during his visit to the United States on a Rockefeller Fellowship in 1956.
4. Gods, Demons and Others: This is a book containing short stories adapted from Indian history and mythology. It even includes epics like The Ramayana and Mahābhārata.
5. The Vendor of Sweets: This book is the biography of a fictional character named Sri K.V. Jagan who is a sweet vendor of Malgudi. It deals with his life and his relationship with his estranged son.
6. A Tiger for Malgudi: This book is told by a tiger in the first person. It follows the tiger's life and how his life changes at the hands of a kind monk.
