Red Earth & Pouring Rain  (English, Paperback, Chandra Vikram)

Red Earth and Pouring Rain is a story about a monkey that remembers that it was a man in its previous life. It narrates its stories of the early years of colonialism in India, and many more stories follow.

Summary of the Book

Abhay gets angry when a monkey that has been bothering his family for years steals his jeans. He ends up shooting the monkey and the injured primate is taken inside the house by his parents. We learn that the gods are having a little discussion as to who will get to keep the monkey’s soul and it is decided that the monkey can live for as long as he can tell a story. Soon, the monkey starts to remember who he was in his past life. He was a man and has many stories to type out for Abhay and his family. There are many stories told about Abhay’s time in America too.

About Vikram Chandra

Vikram Chandra is an Indian-American author. Red Earth and Pouring Rain is his first novel and the book won the 1996 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First Book. Vikram graduated from Pomona College in Claremont, California. He received a BA in English and concentrated on Creative Writing. He later received an MA from The Writing Seminars at John Hopkins University in 1987.