The city of Delhi, in which they were born and grew up, had suddenly stopped being their Delhi. They had become outsiders. My own Delhi shorn of me.

Delhi: A Soliloquy
M. Mukundan

ABOUT The AUTHORM. 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.

Fathima E.V.

ABOUT THE TRANSLATORFathima E.V.

Fathima E.V. is an award-winning writer and translator. Her translation of Subhash Chandran's Manushyanu Oru Amukham, translated as A Preface to Man, was awarded the Crossword Book Award (2017) and the V. Abdulla Translation Award (2017). She was the translator-editor of the Indian Ink Mag, and her poems and short fiction have appeared in international anthologies and journals. She holds an MA and a PhD from the University of Calicut, and completed the TESOL course from the University of Surrey. Currently, she heads the department of English at Krishna Menon Memorial Government Women's College, Kannur.

Nandakumar K.

ABOUT THE TRANSLATORNandakumar K.

Nandakumar K. started his career as a sub-editor at Financial Express, after completing a master’s degree in Economics, followed by stints in international marketing and general management in India and abroad. Having travelled in over fifty countries, he claims he can speak enough German and French to save his life. Strangely, his tryst with translation started with a paper in French on the blood diseases of fishes for his sister-in-law, using a borrowed dictionary. He is now an empanelled copy editor with Indian publishers and IIM Ahmedabad. Delhi: A Soliloquy is his first published translation from Malayalam. He lives and works in Dubai. Nandakumar is the grandson of Mahakavi Vallathol Narayana Menon.

Feedback Chronicle

M, Mukundan x Shashi Tharoor for #TheJCBPrizeTea
M, Mukundan x Shashi Tharoor for #TheJCBPrizeTea

Delhi: A Soliloquy is a masterful novel that zooms into the interior life of its characters, zooms out to paint a picture of the times, and makes both equally vivid. It is that rare book that succeeds in being both intimate and epic.

Amit Varma <span>Writer</span>
Amit Varma Writer

History writes with a big brush. Its concerns are with headline events, with the lives of the big and the powerful. M. Mukundan’s Delhi: A Soliloquy is history with a small ‘h’, and its concerns are the little people in the cracks and crevices of that history – their lives and loves and hopes and despairs that play out unnoticed against the backdrop of seismic change.

Prem Panicker <span>Editor</span>
Prem Panicker Editor

I love the way Delhi: A Soliloquy captures what it is like to be a bit player in the story of a big city. This book is full of bit players, and in the quiet and grim unfolding of their lives, against the political crises of the sixties and seventies and eighties, Mukundan invests their lives with the quiet dignity of witnessing.

Shahnaz Habib <span>Author</span>
Shahnaz Habib Author

Mukundan’s Delhi: A Soliloquy deserves to win because it is a finely written novel of many stories, set in an epic city. Mukundan’s characters take us back to a time when the promises of the new nation broke; through them, we understand that kindness can endure even as political and social forms fail to fulfil hopes and dreams.

Annapurna Garimella <span>Designer</span>
Annapurna Garimella Designer

Delhi: A Soliloquy by M Mukundan speaks with grace and poise of the large lives of small people in a city with a broken soul. Clairvoyant in its human empathy, this extraordinary book is the distillation of a lifetime of experience.

Sara Rai <span>Chair</span>
Sara Rai Chair

The 2021 SHORTLIST

Anti-Clock

Anti-Clock

By V.J. James
Translated by Ministhy S.
Name Place Animal Thing

Name Place Animal Thing

By Daribha Lyndem
The Plague Upon us

The Plague Upon us

By Shabir Ahmad Mir
Delhi: A Soliloquy

Delhi: A Soliloquy

By M. Mukundan
Translated by Fathima E.V. & Nandakumar K.
Gods and Ends

Gods and Ends

By Lindsay Pereira

The 2021 LONGLIST

Explore the books

What We Know About Her

What We Know About Her

By Krupa Ge
The Man Who Learnt to Fly but Could Not Land

The Man Who Learnt to Fly but Could Not Land

By Thachom Poyil Rajeevan
Translated by P.J. Mathew
The Dharma Forest

The Dharma Forest

By Keerthik Sasidharan
Asoca: A Sutra

Asoca: A Sutra

By Irwin Allan Sealy
A Death in Shonagachhi

A Death in Shonagachhi

By Rijula Das
Anti-Clock

Anti-Clock

By V.J. James
Translated by Ministhy S.
Name Place Animal Thing

Name Place Animal Thing

By Daribha Lyndem
The Plague Upon us

The Plague Upon us

By Shabir Ahmad Mir
Gods and Ends

Gods and Ends

By Lindsay Pereira
Delhi: A Soliloquy

Delhi: A Soliloquy

By M. Mukundan
Translated by Fathima E.V. & Nandakumar K.

THE 2021 JURY

A distinguished jury from diverse backgrounds brings forth the Longlist, Shortlist and Winner of the JCB Prize for Literature, year on year.

Sara Rai

Sara Rai

Chair

Sara Rai (chair) is a writer and literary translator working with Hindi, Urdu, and English. She has published three collections of short stories in Hindi with her first novel, Cheelvali Kothi (The House of Kites) published in 2010. The German translation of her selected short fiction, Im Labyrinth (The Labyrinth) won the Coburg Rückert Prize 2019, and was also nominated for the Weltempfӓnger Prize, Frankfurt 2020. Her translation of Vinod Kumar Shukla’s Blue is Like Blue won the Atta Galatta Prize 2019 and the Matrubhumi Award 2020. Over the years her work has been translated into Urdu, German, French, Italian and English.
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Dr. Annapurna Garimella

Dr. Annapurna Garimella

Designer

Dr. Annapurna Garimella is a designer and an art historian. Her latest book is a co-edited Marg volume titled The Contemporary Hindu Temple: Fragments for a History (2019) and her upcoming edited volume is titled The Long Arc of South Asian Art: A Reader in Honor of Vidya Dehejia (New Delhi: Women Unlimited, 2021). Annapurna is the Managing Trustee of Art, Resources and Teaching Trust, along with heading Jackfruit Research and Design.
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Shahnaz Habib

Shahnaz Habib

Author

Shahnaz Habib is the author of the nonfiction book Airplane Mode, and the translator of the novels Jasmine Days and Al-Arabian Novel Factory. She, along with the author Benyamin won the JCB Prize for Literature for Jasmine Days in 2018. Her writing has appeared in The New Yorker online, Creative Non-fiction, Agni, Brevity, The Guardian, and Afar, among many others. She currently teaches writing at The New School and consults for the United Nations as well.
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Prem Panicker

Prem Panicker

Editor

Prem Panicker is the editor of Peepli.org, an independent website dedicated to longform multimedia storytelling. He has worked as a journalist and editor for over 30 years across print and digital mediums. Prem was one of the team of journalists who helped start Rediff.com. and has also worked as the Managing Editor, for Yahoo! India. Prem conducts storytelling workshops, and consults various media houses from time to time.
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Amit Varma

Amit Varma

Writer

Amit Varma is a writer and podcaster based in Mumbai. He writes The India Uncut Newsletter and hosts the longform conversation podcast, The Seen and the Unseen. He has been a journalist for over two decades, and won the Bastiat Prize for Journalism in 2007 and 2015. Amit also teaches the online course, The Art of Clear Writing.
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