Stories of the True

A riotous, masterful, and tender portrait of the real modern India as seen through the truth-refracting fiction of Tamil literature’s greatest living storyteller.

A stunning new literary vision of India. In these dozen minutely observed stories, Jeyamohan juxtaposes the great themes of Indian life--politics, religion, caste, violence--in illuminating relation to the quiet internal machinery of his characters.

In ＂A Hundred Armchairs,＂ a bureaucrat receives the news that his mother has been found in a hospital for the indigent. As he rushes to her side, he is visited by memories of his nomadic youth with her, of her violence and mania, her wild fear for his safety, his forced adoption and education by a local guru. In ＂Elephant Doctor,＂ a young man spends a restive night at an elephant camp waiting for a call from the office of the president; he has spent months advocating for an award for his idol, Dr. Krishnamurthy, one of the country’s preeminent conservationists. But in the still hours of the morning he’s haunted by questions about the doctor’s enigmatic ways and the strange magic of this dark corner of the forest.

The tales in Stories of the True live in the shadowland between truth and fiction, blending real life with the prismatic effect of Jeyamohan’s volatile and incisive prose. The result is a collection that shimmers with life and wisdom and a truth greater than truth all on its own.

Jeyamohan is a Tamil writer and literary critic based in Nagercoil, India. One of India’s finest authors writing today, his work examines and reinterprets India’s rich literary and classical traditions. A prolific writer, his output includes multiple novels, short stories, volumes of literary criticism, writer biographies, introductory texts to Indian and Western literature, books on philosophy, and numerous other translations and collections.

Priyamvada Ramkumar is a translator from Tamil to English. Her debut translation was Jeyamohan’s Stories of the True, originally published in English in India. Take Me Back, her translation of A. Muttulingam’s short story ＂Ennai Thirupi Edu,＂ was published in Spillwords Press, an online literary magazine. She has been awarded a 2022 ALTA Emerging Translator’s Mentorship as well as a 2023 PEN/Heim Translation Fund Grant for her work on Jeyamohan’s White Elephant. She lives in Chennai, India.