"There are writers-- Leo Tolstoy and Henry James to name two--whom we hold in awe, writers--Ivan Turgenev and Anton Chekhov--for whom we feel a personal affection, other writers whom we respect--Joseph Conrad for example--but who hold us at a long arm's length with their 'courtly foreign grace.' Narayan (whom I don't hesitate to name in such a context) more than any of them wakes in me a spring of gratitude, for he has offered me a second home. Without him I could never have known what it is like to be Indian."--Graham Greene

Offering rare insight into the complexities of Indian middle-class society, R. K. Narayan traces life in the fictional town of Malgudi.