Let’s ExploreMy Father's Garden

  • Author: Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar
My Father's Garden
My Father's Garden

Betrayed by lovers, friends and society, a young doctor seeks redemption in nature

The novel, narrated in first person by an unnamed medical student and doctor, is divided into three sections.

The opening section, ‘Lover’, finds him studying medicine in Jamshedpur. After a string of affairs, he discovers an all-consuming, unrequited passion for Samir, a junior at the college. In ‘Friend’, the young doctor, escaping heartbreak, finds relief in Pakur where he meets Bada Babu only to uncover a sordid tale of apathy and exploitation. And in ‘Father’ he takes refuge in his parents’ home in Ghatshila and wonders if his father’s obsessive gardening has anything to do with the choices his son has made.

ABOUT THE AUTHORHansda Sowvendra Shekhar

Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar writes in English; and translates into English from Santali, Hindi, and Bengali. His novel, My Father’s Garden, was shortlisted for the JCB Prize for Literature 2019. His collection of stories, The Adivasi Will Not Dance, was shortlisted for The Hindu Prize; while his debut novel, The Mysterious Ailment of Rupi Baskey, won the Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar, was shortlisted for The Hindu Prize and a Crossword Book Award, and longlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award. His book for children, Jwala Kumar and the Gift of Fire, was shortlisted for a Crossword Book Award. His writings have been published in Frontline, The Caravan, Mint Lounge, Reader’s Digest, The Indian Quarterly, The Hindu, The Indian Express, The New York Times, Fifty-two, and other places; while his translations have been published in Asymptote, Poetry at Sangam, The Dalhousie Review, and other places.

Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar

The JCB Prize in Videos

The Prize Winnersover the years

The JCB Prize for Literature was first awarded in 2018, since then the Prize has been awarded to 6 books.

Perumal Murugan

Perumal Murugan

Perumal Murugan is an Indian author, scholar, and literary chronicler who writes in Tamil. He has written twelve novels, six collections of short stories, six anthologies of poetry, and many non-fiction books. Ten of his novels have been translated into English: Seasons of the Palm, which was shortlisted for the Kiriyama Prize in 2005, Current Show, One Part Woman, A Lonely Harvest, Trail by Silence, Poonachi or the Story of a Goat, Resolve, Estuary, Rising Heat, and Pyre. He was a professor of Tamil at the Government Arts College in Salem Attur and Namakkal.

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Khalid Jawed

Khalid Jawed

Khalid Jawed is one of the leading Urdu novelists today. He is the author of fifteen works of fiction and non-fiction and is a recipient of the Katha Award, the Upendranath Ashk Award, and the UP Urdu Academy Award. He is a professor at Jamia Millia Islamia University.

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M. Mukundan

M. Mukundan

M. Mukundan was born and brought up in Mahe. He rose to critical acclaim and popularity with Mayyazhippuzhayude Theerangalil (1974). His stories and novels have been widely translated into various Indian languages, English and French. He has been awarded Ezhuthachan Puraskaram, the highest literary honour given by the Government of Kerala, the Crossword Book Award twice, first in 1999 for On the Banks of the Mayyazhi and again in 2006 for Kesavan’s Lamentations, and the Sahitya Akademi award and N.V. Puraskaram for Daivathinte Vikrithikal (God’s Mischief). His other major works include Kesavante Vilapangal (2009) and Prasavam (2008). He was presented with the insignia of Chevalier in the Order of Arts and Letters by the French government in 1998. He also served as the president of the Kerala Sahitya Akademi from 2006 to 2010. Four of his books have been adapted into award-winning films. Delhi Gathakal (2011), translated as Delhi: A Soliloquy, is based on his experiences of living and working in Delhi for forty years as a Cultural Attaché at the French embassy. In 2004, he retired from that position and returned to Mahe, his hometown.

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S. Hareesh

S. Hareesh

S. Hareesh is the author of three short-story collections: Adam, which received the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award, Rasavidyayude Charithram, and Appan. He is also a recipient of the Geetha Hiranyan Endowment, the Thomas Mundassery Prize, and the V.P. Sivakumar Memorial Prize. Hareesh is also the author of two screenplays - for the film Aedan, which received the Kerala State Award for best screenplay in 2017, and for the 2019 film Jallikattu, which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival and won a silver peacock at the International Film Festival of India. Hareesh works in the revenue department, and hails from Neendoor in Kottayam district, Kerala.

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Upamanyu Chatterjee

Upamanyu Chatterjee

Upamanyu Chatterjee was born in 1959 in Patna. He spent over thirty calm and undistinguished years in the Indian Administrative Service; during that time, he wrote six novels—when no one was looking. He retired (early and honourably) in 2016 to devote himself full time to running the household. He has one wife and two daughters. He enjoys several solitary occupations.

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Benyamin

Benyamin

Benyamin was born 1971 in Nhettur, Kerala. He moved to Bahrain in 1992. Until the age of twenty-one, he knew nothing of literature: "Cricket was my world, better living standards were my aim." When he reached The Gulf, he felt a loneliness that triggered reading and eventually led to writing: "I began with letters to friends. They accepted my words." Today he is an author of over twenty books. Aadujeevitham or Goat Days is his most successful novel and has won him the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award. He returned from the Middle East to his native state of Kerala in 2013, two years after the Arab revolution ended. A former electrical engineer and now a full-time writer, he lives alone and cooks for himself daily: "I feel, and my friends certify, that I have a talent in it too."

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