Vanam Vasappadum is considered to be a major contribution to the genre of the historical novel in Tamil literature. It documents the founding, consolidation, and collapse of the French colonial venture in India with Puducherry (Pondicherry) as its center. Oscillating between the period 1740 and 1750, the novel brings history and fiction together to produce an intriguing narrative of the French empire envisaged through the diary of Anandarangam Pillai, the Dubash for the French government in Puducherry. What unfolds is not only a slice of history but also the various facets of human nature under the colonial regime of the French empire. Set in a time when the British imperialists were attempting to bring India under their control, with all weapons at their disposal, the French imperialists were successfully implementing it.

The novel was awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1995.

About the Author
Prapanchan was born in 1945 in Puducherry. He has published 18 collections of short stories, 14 novels, one novelette, and one collection of plays. He has been honoured with several awards and honours including the Tamil Nadu Government’s Best Writer Award for the years 1982 and 1986 respectively. He was also awarded the Pondicherry Government’s Best Writer Award in the year 1986. A number of his works have been translated into Indian languages, English, and French.

Kathugal portrays the colossal struggle of an intellectual with refined sensibilities to cope with the onslaught of mysterious evil forces upon his consciousness which takes the form of different sounds and human voices heard within his ears. The story depicts the various efforts the hero Magalingam makes to save himself with the help of spiritual guides and masters until finally his abiding faith in Lord Murugan saves him from becoming totally insane. He recovers his faith in the end by clinging to his personal god. The novel is in a way a portrayal of the eternal struggle between the forces of good and evil that has been going on in the mind of man ever since he was turned out of Eden. For its profound spiritual concern, its visionary sublimity, its intense portrait of the human dilemma, its subtle employment of day-to-day speech, its rare use of fantasy and its innovative narrative technique, Kathugal has been recognized a great landmark in Indian fiction.

The novel was awarded Sahitya Akademi Award in 1993.

About the Author
M.V. Venkataram first started publishing in the literary magazine Manikodi in the 1930s. His works have been published in magazines like Kaalamohini, Grama Ooozhiyan, and Sivaji. He also ran a literary magazine named Thenee briefly. He has written over two hundred short stories and novels. Nithya Kanni, Kathugal, and Velivithee are his most noted works. He wrote more than 60 short biographies for Palaniappa Brothers and translated over 10 books for the National Book Trust of India.

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Nithya Kanni
A lesser-known character in Mahabharat, daughter of Yayati, became the main character in M.V.V’s imagination. Madhavi had the wondrous boon of regaining her virginity each time she gavé birth to a child. As a result, she has to marry three kings and a sage. The thoughts of the earlier days and the complexity are pictured graphically in this novel.

A highway robber murders a pregnant young woman for her jewellery. He is caught and sentenced to death by impalement in Gopallapuram. A community of Telugu speakers migrates to the Tamil country to escape Muslim rule. They transform a barren land, turning it into a fertile, verdant village. A horde of bandits attempts to raid a village but the attempt is foiled by the unarmed, inventive villagers. Winner of the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1991, Ki. Rajanarayanan weaves legend, myth, history and good old-fashioned storytelling in this wonderful contemporary classic.

About the Author
Ki. Rajanarayanan has spent over five decades gathering the most exotic tales of his favorite land, Karisal Kadu—the scorched drought-stricken land in Tamil Nadu. Popularly known as Ki. Ra., he is a powerful storyteller. His short story Mayamaan (1958) is considered the hallmark of the golden age of modern Tamil literature.

Oru Kaveriyai Pole is based mainly on the encounters of a South African-born Indian girl, who visits India and is treated to a chain of ordeals which impairs her visit around her native country and people. This novel has been acclaimed as one of the best contemporary novels in modern Tamil Literature, for its realism, narrative power, artistic presentation and deep insight into the life of Tamils in South Africa. It won the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1984.

About the Author
Dr Thirupurasundari popularly known as Lakshmi started writing when she was fourteen. Despite her busy medical profession in South Africa, she had written more than a hundred novels and thousands of short stories, besides articles on various subjects including medicine.

Verukku Neer is written in a period where the first generation Gandhian politicians are almost done with their ruling and the new generation of politicians who didn’t have any motive to serve the people is coming to power. The novel exhibits the anger of a woman (Yamuna) who follows Gandhian values all her life and also the struggle she faces with the materialistic world around her. It conveys a message on Gandhian values, feminism, democracy vs. socialist thoughts, environmental awareness, philosophy, etc. With its interplay of ideologies, however, ends on a hopeful note. The novel won the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1973.

About the Author
Rajam Krishnan started publishing her work in her twenties. She is known for writing well researched social novels on the lives of people usually not depicted in modern Tamil literature like poor farmers, salt pan workers, small-time criminals, jungle dacoits, under-trial prisoners, and female laborers. Her works include forty novels, twenty plays, two biographies, and several short stories. In addition to her own writing, she was a translator of literature from Malayalam to Tamil.

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Suzhalil Mithakkum Deepangal by Rajam Krishnan
Translated to English as Lamps In A Whirlpool by Uma Narayanan

The book is a lucid portrayal of different kinds of patriarchal oppression within the family. The intimate portrait of the housewife Girija would resonate well with (most, if not all) women ‘homemakers’ of 2019. The feminist treatment of this story about a housewife’s self-respect is especially impressive for its lucid language. Rajam Krishnan examines and portrays the golden cage of patriarchy that binds women within the house and hopes for a real transformation of values within society.

Sila Nerangalil Sila Manidargal (Of Men and Moments) captures the chequered life of the protagonist Ganga with sensitivity and empathy. Stumbling into sex with a millionaire playboy as an innocent teenager; ruthlessly driven out of the house; sheltered and educated by a benevolent uncle, a man of erudition with a lecherous streak; occupying a senior Government position; her man, Prabhu re-entering her life, now as a man of dignity, keen to see her settled in marriage; her total rejection of the idea, followed by bitterness and wantonness – the novel captures the indomitable spirit of a woman of courage and discernment. It won the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1972.

About the Author
D. Jayakanthan (1934) has written 14 novels, over 30 novellas, over 130 short stories, hundreds of essays and four ‘autobiographical’ works. An iconoclast who ridiculed exploitative social norms, his works reveal a deep and nuanced understanding of society. In an exceptional literary career spanning over half a century, and straddling several genres, he has won many honors and awards.

Chittirappavai is a contemporary social novel written by Akilan, which vividly questions and attempts to address the social structure of marriage and destiny in the 21st century. On one hand, the novel speaks of the mismatched marriage of Annamalai with Sundari and Manickam with Anandi and on the other, it discusses the social fabric and societal immorality through the materialistic Manickam and the ‘forward-thinking’ Sundari. Its relevance in this day can be ascertained by reviewer Jameel Ahamed concluding statement that Chittrapavai is a projection of likely trends in the 21st century – the new woman, the emerging woman of the succeeding century may not sit and watch idly as the society tramples over her. The novel won the Jnanpith Award in 1975.

About the Author
Akilan was the pen name of Akilandam, the first of only two Tamil-language Jnanpith awardees, who wrote and translated more than 20 novels, 200 short stories, essays, and plays. His writings won multiple awards, including the Jnanpith in 1975 — the first Jnanpith to be awarded to a Tamil writer — and his works have been translated into a slew of languages, including Russian and Chinese. He was uncompromising in his views, yet able to adapt, and outspoken to the end.

Alai Osai is a reflection of Kalki’s personal political belief system. It observes the Partition and describes the mindset of people during that era. The author had visited the Hindu refugee camps in Delhi to depict the emotions of people driven out of their land that is currently known as Pakistan. This is the first major work in Tamil that gives adequate coverage to the issues of Partition.

Kalki considered Alai Osai, which was serialized in Kalki in 1948-49 and published as a book in 1963, as his best. The novel won for him the Sahitya Akademi award posthumously in 1956.

About the Author
Ramaswamy Aiyer Krishnamurthy, better known by his pen name Kalki, was an Indian writer, journalist, poet, critic and Indian independence activist. Although there is practically no subject he left untouched and no genre he did not experiment with, he is best known for his historical romances, which are acclaimed as classics and remain popular to this day, nearly five decades after his death. The government of Tamil Nadu announced the nationalization of Kalki’s works, this will enable publishers to come out with reprints of his works. It is amazing that whereas works of several contemporary writers fail to see even a second edition, each of these novels has been re-published eight times over the past 15 years (1984-1999). Kalki’s crusade against alcohol, untouchability, superstition, oppression of women and many of the decadent practices in Brahmin families of those days is testimony to his progressive thinking

With a narrative breadth never before seen in Tamil fiction, Sundara Ramaswamy’s Oru Puliamarathin Kathai inaugurated a new era in Tamil letters. Its meditations on the loss of beloved places, the shared experience of the past and the meaning of togetherness amid struggle, ambition, and enmity, all flow from the life of an aged tamarind tree that stands at the center of a bustling town. This town’s wild places – their mythic pasts still treasures by an old wanderer and the youth who listen to his tales – are stripped away as politicians commit to modernization in the name of progress. Yet the town remains filled with life and beauty even as it is irrevocably damaged.

About the Author
Sundara Ramaswamy (1931–2005), fondly known as “Su. Ra” in literary circles, was one of the exponents of Tamil modern literature. He edited and published a literary magazine called Kalachuvadu. He wrote poetry under the pen name ‘Pasuvayya’. His other novels translated into English are  J.J Silakuripukal translated by A.R Venkatachalapathy as J.J: Some Jottings (Katha, 2004) and Kuzhanthaigal, Pengal, Aangal translated by Lakshmi Holmström as Children, Women, Men (Penguin 2013).

Amma Vanthal is a lyrical story of a vedapadasalai (Vedic School) by the Kaveri and an orthodox Brahmin household in Madras. A moment of insight is all it takes to topple a goddess. To Appu, a Vedic scholar, his mother is as pure and beautiful as the scriptures he is studying. Yet when he discovers that his idol, is having an illicit relationship with a rich landowner Sivasu under the very nose of his father and the rest of the family, he returns to the padasalai only to be drawn into a relationship with the young widow, Indu. Bhavani Ammal bequeaths the padasalai to Appu and Indu, with a promise to carry the tradition of Vedic teaching forward.

Thi Jaa’s portrayal of women who pursue their passions with calm self-assurance is bold and uncritical.

The novel has been translated to English as The Sins of Appu’s Mother  by Orient Paperbacks in 1972 and more recently as Remembering Amma translated by Malati Mathur as published by Katha in 2006.

About the Author
Thi. Janakiraman (Thi Jaa) is one of the major figures of Tamil literature in the 20th century and was an expert at portraying life in the Thanjavur milieu. Born into a Brahmin family in Chennai; he worked as a civil servant before he took up writing. His writings portrayed the intricacies of the workings of the human mind. The smell of the soil, the taste of its food, the music of the dialect and its peculiar cultural elitism – all are attractively displayed in his writings. His published works include eight novels, two novelettes, six collections of short stories, three full-length plays and three travelogues.

He won the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1979 for his short stories collection – Shakthi Vaithiyam.

Also read
Marapasu
Translated as The Wooden Cow by Lakshmi Kannan (1979)
A novel about choice and agency, Marapasu traces the story of a ‘kept woman’, a Brahmin girl from Rural South India. She is an aesthete, an intellectual, a radical, completely amoral, who takes charge of her life led in contradictions. She can be bought, but she is not for sale. The protagonist Ammani, therefore, is one of the most enigmatic characters in Tamil fiction.

Mogamul (1940)
Mogamul (Thorn of Desire) revolves around the story of a young passionate singer who travels away from home to study and encounters his past love. The singer’s struggles between his lust and his passion and the diktats of society form the plot of the story. The novel was adapted into a film of the same name by director Gnana Rajasekaran in 1995.