The Vendor of Sweets by R.K. Narayan (Penguin Modern Classics)

Jagan, the vendor of sweets, finds himself confronted by his estranged son Mali, who has returned to Malgudi with Grace, his American wife, and a grand plan for selling story-writing machines. What follows is a classic cross-generational battle between father and son. A man of Gandhian principles, Jagan cannot reconcile himself to Mali’s modern ways, but develops a fondness for Grace. Unable to find a place in the new world, Jagan decides to retire, only to learn that Mali has been arrested by the police and has deserted his wife. Insightful and moving, The Vendor of Sweets is R.K. Narayan’s story of an India trying to find its own identity. ‘A master of Chekhovian irony. Narayan’s Malgudi is a metaphor, not of India, but of the world’—The Washington Post