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World Book Club: Manu Joseph: Serious Men

Discussion & Talk

Manu Joseph

05/06/2021 GMT

Manu Joseph: Serious Men

BBC World Service - World Book Club, Manu Joseph: Serious Men

Manu Joseph discusses Serious Men, a satirical portrait of contemporary Indian society

Serious Men tells the story of Ayyan Mani, who decides to improve his lot by convincing the world that his son is a mathematical genius, with surprisingly complicated results.

Serious Men tells the intertwined stories of wily Ayyan Mani - who tries to pass off his son as a mathematical genius - and life at the Institute of Theory and Research in Mumbai, where Ayyan works, and where veteran scientists battle over their pet theories about how life began on Earth.

Serious Men won the Hindu Best Fiction Award in 2010 and the 2011 PEN Open Book Award and was shortlisted for the Man Asian Literary Prize. It’s an unsettling comedy about inequalities in Indian society; it’s a portrait of a man doing his best for his family with unorthodox methods and unexpected results, and it’s a look at the romance and frustrations of scientific research. 

Manu Joseph is a novelist and columnist.

(Picture: Manu Joseph. Photo credit: Roberto Ricciuti/Getty Images.)

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