Two Short Novels

Anniversary Commemorative Volume.

Saros Cowasjee's laudatory proposal to bring forth a commemorative volume of Mulk Raj Anand's two short novels, Lament on the Death of a Master of Arts and Death of a Hero, on his birthday will undoubtedly help readers to get acquainted with another challenging side of the celebrated author of Untouchable and Coolie.

While Lament on the Death of a Master of Arts, takes us back to the British colonial India of the modernist era of the thirties, Death of a Hero brings us face to face with the historical realities of the beginnings of free India.

Lament is a poetic dirge on the philosophies of pain, loss and grief, but Death as an epitaph is Anand's poetic aside on liberty and the function of the poet as reformer and legislator.

Praise

"He is an excellent raconteur, telling a story with grace and point. He commands an easy urbane style. The stories have the power to charm." — Weekend Review
"Mr. Anand is not a mere storyteller, he is a poet as well. There runs a fine poetic streak through his stories." — Alfred Perles in Life and Letters
"Anand is indeed adept in the art of spinning a yarn... he employs linguistic skills to effect an inner cohesion and give an organic whole to the story." — Punjab Journal of English Studies