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Stories of the True

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Pub Date Aug 12 2025 | Archive Date Sep 12 2025

Description

A riotous, masterful, and tender portrait of the real modern India as seen through the truth-refracting fiction of Tamil literature's greatest living storyteller.

A stunning new literary vision of India. In these dozen minutely observed stories, Jeyamohan juxtaposes the great themes of Indian life—politics, religion, caste, violence—in illuminating relation to the quiet internal machinery of his characters.

In “A Hundred Armchairs," a bureaucrat receives the news that his mother has been found in a hospital for the indigent. As he rushes to her side, he is visited by memories of his nomadic youth with her, of her violence and mania, her wild fear for his safety, his forced adoption and education by a local guru. In "Elephant Doctor," a young man spends a restive night at an elephant camp waiting for a call from the office of the president; he has spent months advocating for an award for his idol, Dr. Krishnamurthy, one of the country's preeminent conservationists. But in the still hours of the morning he's haunted by questions about the doctor's enigmatic ways and the strange magic of this dark corner of the forest.

The tales in Stories of the True live in the shadowland between truth and fiction, blending real life with the prismatic effect of Jeyamohan’s volatile and incisive prose. The result is a collection that shimmers with life and wisdom and a truth greater than truth all on its own.

A riotous, masterful, and tender portrait of the real modern India as seen through the truth-refracting fiction of Tamil literature's greatest living storyteller.

A stunning new literary vision of...


A Note From the Publisher

Jeyamohan is a Tamil writer and literary critic based in Nagercoil, India. One of India’s finest authors writing today, his work examines and reinterprets India’s rich literary and classical traditions. A prolific writer, his output includes multiple novels, short stories, volumes of literary criticism, writer biographies, introductory texts to Indian and Western literature, books on philosophy, and numerous other translations and collections.

Priyamvada Ramkumar is a translator from Tamil to English. Her debut translation was Jeyamohan’s Stories of the True, originally published in English in India. Take Me Back, her translation of A. Muttulingam’s short story "Ennai Thirupi Edu," was published in Spillwords Press, an online literary magazine. She has been awarded a 2022 ALTA Emerging Translator’s Mentorship as well as a 2023 PEN/Heim Translation Fund Grant for her work on Jeyamohan’s White Elephant. She lives in Chennai, India.

Jeyamohan is a Tamil writer and literary critic based in Nagercoil, India. One of India’s finest authors writing today, his work examines and reinterprets India’s rich literary and classical...


Advance Praise

“Jeyamohan is one of India’s most resourceful makers of literary art, and these unforgettable stories, which manage to be simultaneously tender and pitiless, lyrical and jagged, define his singular temperament and sensibility.” —Pankaj Mishra, author of The World After Gaza

“Jeyamohan takes us through the underbelly of mofussil India. The stories capture that unnerving feeling of dharma—the most complex but least articulated value of Indian civilization . . . Our understanding of contemporary India is incomplete without reading Jeyamohan.” —Vivek Shanbhag, author of Ghachar Ghochar

“A book that moved me to tears, so much so that I could barely read the words.” —Kamal Haasan, award-winning Tamil actor and director 

“Each story invites the reader to contemplate our complex world in a deeper way and reminds us of the struggle we must wage to live as ethical humans.” —N. Kalyan Raman, Open

“Jeyamohan is one of India’s most resourceful makers of literary art, and these unforgettable stories, which manage to be simultaneously tender and pitiless, lyrical and jagged, define his singular...


Available Editions

EDITION Other Format
ISBN 9780374619459
PRICE $19.00 (USD)
PAGES 400

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Featured Reviews

Stories of the True by Jeyamohan is a profound and stirring collection of short narratives that captures the quiet heroism and spiritual depth of ordinary individuals. Translated from Tamil, these stories are rooted in the cultural and moral fabric of India, yet they transcend regional boundaries through their exploration of universal human values like compassion, integrity, humility, and self-sacrifice.

Jeyamohan’s prose, deceptively simple in structure, carries immense emotional and philosophical weight. Each story functions almost like a parable, centered around characters whose actions and choices reflect deep inner truth. From wandering saints to impoverished laborers, his protagonists often embody dharma—not as a rigid code, but as a living, breathing force that guides them through moral dilemmas and suffering.

What sets Stories of the True apart is Jeyamohan’s ability to convey the sacred in the everyday. There is no preaching or dramatization; instead, he allows the ethical and spiritual dimensions of his characters to emerge naturally through their experiences. His writing evokes a sense of stillness and clarity, drawing the reader into a contemplative state that mirrors the interior journeys of the characters.

The translation preserves much of the lyrical grace and philosophical undercurrent of the original Tamil, making the stories accessible without diluting their depth. However, the cultural specificity remains intact, offering readers a glimpse into a worldview shaped by Tamil spiritual traditions, Gandhian ethics, and rural life.

Ultimately, Stories of the True is a quietly transformative read. It reminds us that true greatness often lies not in grand gestures, but in the smallest acts of goodness carried out with unwavering conviction. Jeyamohan invites us to look beyond the surface of things—to find the sacred within the ordinary—and in doing so, he offers a rare kind of literary nourishment.

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