A. Sethumadhavan

A Sethumadhavan (Sethu), born in a small village in Kerala, has been writing stories and novels in Malayalam for the past five decades. He belongs to a highly innovative generation of fiction writers in Malayalam, who pioneered a radical transformation of sensibility during that period. Widely travelled abroad and having worked in different parts of India, many of his writings have a global flavour and a pan-Indian canvas. A winner of many major awards in Malayalam, he has 18 novels and 20 collections of stories to his credit. His novel Adayalangal won him the Vayalar Award in 2005 and the Sahitya Akademi Award in 2007. Many of his works have been translated into English and other Indian languages. The Saga of Muziris was published in English translation in 2016, and Aliyah: The Last Jew in the Village in 2018. The Cuckoo?s Nest is his first novel in English. He is known for his magical rendition, weaving in ?a sense of the impossible? in a haunting manner, remarkable for the way it attracts a subtext of profound psychological, anthropological and, at times, mystical significance. A banker by profession, Sethu was also the chairman of the National Book Trust, Delhi, for three years.