The Muddy River  (English, Paperback, Krishnan P. A.)

The Muddy River by P. A. Krishnan, a cocktail of facts and fiction, narrates the story of a bureaucrat caught up in the conniving web of Assamese politics and public sector corruption.

Summary Of The Book

The Muddy River follows Ramesh Chandran, a bureaucrat, who is on a mission to rescue an engineer of a public sector company. The engineer has been kidnapped by local militants. During his quest, Chandran bumps into the engineer’s wife, a pessimistic cop, a revered Gandhian, and another engineer torn between her love for Assam and her professional integrity. Due to the involvement of a diverse set of people, the issue gets murkier. While working his way through this, Chandran also unearths a financial scam in his company.

Chandran, an aspiring writer, weaves his experiences and the events of the hostage drama into a novel, while trying to come to terms with his marriage following the death of his only child. The novel moves along two levels. While on one level, Chandran works on writing the book; on another level, Chandran’s wife narrates events not known to him. The method of weaving a story into a story is further played up by the commentary of Chandran’s friends, a Bengali and a British lecturer. This complex narrative keeps the suspense until the end of the The Muddy River.

About P. A. Krishnan

P. A. Krishnan began his career as a teacher. He taught Physics at MDT Hindu College, Tirunelveli. Later he joined the Government of India as a bureaucrat.

Krishnan is among the very few writers who can write comfortably in Tamil and English. He debuted as a novelist with The Tiger Claw Tree in 1998, which captured the ups and downs of four generations of a Thenkalai Vaishnavite sect family from the 18th century until the 1970s.

The recurrence of Gandhian values is a characteristic feature among the novels written by him.

Apart from having authored novels, Krishnan has also published two collections of essays.

Presently, he is working on a novel set during the rule of the Marudhu brothers in Sivaganga. Krishnan has already authored an essay on the Marudhu brothers. He retired from the Civil Services in 2006 to head a research foundation as its CEO. Presently, he is a Senior Director on the board of a multinational company. He lives with his wife Revathi in New Delhi.