R.K. Narayan, an Indian author writing in English in the 1930s through the 1990s, is best know for his creation of the fictional Indian town of Malgudi, the setting for all 14 of his novels. Although Narayan has been compared to British and American authors such as Faulkner and Dickens, in this study, Grene (English literature, Trinity College, UK) emphasizes Narayan's distinctiveness, looking at how Narayan's representation of India is different from other Indian writers and how his fiction differs from Western novelists. Chapters are organized thematically rather than chronologically, touching on the features of Malgudi, Narayan's treatment of politics and marriage, the role of Hindu myth and fables in his work, and storytelling styles in his short stories. The book includes a biographical outline from Narayan's birth in 1906 to his death in 2001. The book is distributed in North America by The David Brown Book Co. Annotation ©2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)