SynopsisAyyan Mani appears to be just another man in Bombay, stranded in the rot of a good marriage, an unremarkable life and a deadend job as personal assistant to an insufferable astronomer called Arvind Acharya at the Institute of Theory and Research. But Ayyan is not as simple as he appears. To entertain himself and to give his wife the hope that they are heading towards a spectacular future, he embarks upon a secret game, weaving an outrageous fiction around his tenyearold son. As he builds the small plots to promote the myth, he sets in motion a chain of events that soon threatens to overtake him.
When the formidable reputation of Arvind Acharya plummets after a major scandal, and he is rocked by the vicious office politics in the institute, Ayyan sees in the crisis an opportunity to further his own game and make his son a national celebrity. But in the exhilaration of the game lurks danger... Alternately funny and poignant, Serious Men is a savage satire on class, love, relationships, and our veneration of science.
Enjoying reading this book?
Binding: Paperback
About the author
Manu Joseph is the author of the widely acclaimed and bestselling novels, Serious Men and The Illicit Happiness of Other People, which have been translated into many languages, and have been nominated for several prizes. Among other honours, he is the winner of The Hindu Literature Prize and The American Pen Open Book Award, whose jury described him as ‘…that rare bird who can wildly entertain the reader as forcefully as he moves them’. Illicit… was among the top five national bestsellers in Holland for several weeks, bettered only by the ‘Fifty Shades’ trilogy. Among India’s most popular commentators, he is a former columnist for The International New York Times, and now writes on politics and society for Mint Lounge. During his stint as editor of Open, the newsweekly, he broke the ‘Radia Tapes’ story, which revealed the telephone conversations between a corporate lobbyist and some of India’s most influential public figures.