Maupassant and A Cigar: An Intimate Biography of Pudumaipithan

Translated by: Peer Mohamed Azees

The life of a literary giant, equally lauded and criticized…

Pudumaipithan (1906-1948) is widely regarded as one of the greatest writers of short stories in Tamil, and as the harbinger of literary modernism in the language. He is remembered for having revolutionized Tamil prose into a medium through which he approached the lives and emotions of subaltern urban and rural characters, with a distinctly modern sensibility. This biography, written immediately after Pudumaipithan’s death, by someone very close to him, remains the most authentic biography of the writer till date. Translated into vivid, conversational English by Peer Mohamed Azees, this quirkily structured biography captures Pudumaipithan’s brilliance as well as his steadfast unwillingness, indeed inability, to compromise, his endearing addiction to betel leaves, as well as his rigorous skepticism towards every shade of ideological