English, August: An Indian Story [Paperback]

Agastya Sen, known to friends by the English name August, is a child of the Indian elite. His friends go to Yale and Harvard. August himself has just landed a prize government job. The job takes him to Madna, “the hottest town in India,” deep in the sticks. There he finds himself surrounded by incompetents and cranks, time wasters, bureaucrats, and crazies. What to do? Get stoned, shirk work, collapse in the heat, stare at the ceiling. Dealing with the locals turns out to be a lot easier for August than living with himself.English, Augustis a comic masterpiece from contemporary India. LikeA Confederacy of DuncesandThe Catcher in the Rye, it is both an inspired and hilarious satire and a timeless story of self-discovery.An “affectionate yet unsparing slacker view of modern IndiaÉlikened to John Kennedy Toole'sA Confederacy of Duncesand J.D. Salinger'sThe Catcher in the RyeUnlike many of the other Indian writers we read these days, Chatterjee has remained in India...He's a writer worth discovering, andEnglish, Augustis the place to start.”–Michael Dirda,The Washington Post

“This is a very funny novel, but a humane one as well.”–Katherine Powers,The Boston Globe

“Chatterjee offers…a funny, intimate portrait of one person puzzling over his place in the world…”–Julia Hanna,The Boston Phoenix

A “witty and lyrical first novel…it is hard to believe that it has taken this book so long to reach American readers, but once they finish it, they will agree it was well worth the wait. A contribution not just to Indian literature but to world literature; highly recommended.”–Library Journal* Stared Review

“English, Augustis one of the most important novels in Indian writing in English, but not for the usual reasons. Indeed, it’s at war with ‘lC3