Book review
The second anthology of Telugu short fiction edited by novelist, short-story writer, translator, teacher and critic, Ranga Rao, That Man on the Road is the successor to the critically acclaimed Classic Telugu Short Stories.

Bringing together some of the most renowned exponents of the contemporary Telugu short story, the eighteen stories in this collection are representative of experiences that are at once sharply individual and undeniably universal. From the horrific but apt view of justice advocated in ‘Cattle Thief’ to the delightful verbal sparring in ‘“Can’t Dance? Blame the Percussionist”’; from the disturbing vision of dehumanizing poverty in ‘Slush’ to the hilarious prospect of becoming a stock-market guru in ‘By the Grace of Our Goddess of Wealth’ ; from the domestic squabbles of ‘It Is the Way It Is’, to the futuristic world of ‘Manava Factor’, these stories straddle realms as diverse as Dalitism, feminism, religious fanaticism, Naxalism, personal relationships and individual idiosyncrasies. Carefully chosen and skilfully translated, this anthology is part of the series of contemporary short fiction in translation published by Penguin.

• Published by Penguin Books India
• Published: April 2006
• Imprint: Penguin
• ISBN: 014306181X
• Edition: Paperback
• Format: B
• Extent: 264pp
• Classification: Fiction


About the author Ranga Rao was born and grew up in the coastal district of the Telugu country in what is today the state of Andhra Pradesh. He moved to Delhi in 1964 to teach in Sri Venkateswara College, Delhi University. His books include three novels in English, Fowl–Filcher (1987), the first original novel published by Penguin Books India in their inaugural batch of books, The Drunk Tantra (Penguin India 1994), and The River Is Three-Quarters India (Penguin India 2000); a collection of short stories, An Indian Idyll and Other Stories (Ravi Dayal 1989); an anthology of translations, Classic Telugu Short Stories (Penguin India 1995) and R.K. Narayan, a monograph (Sahitya Akademi, Delhi, 2000).