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	<author id="1305302">
  <name><![CDATA[R.K. Narayan]]></name>
  <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1305302.R_K_Narayan]]></link>
  <fans-count type="integer">10</fans-count>
  <followers-count type="integer">0</followers-count>
  <image_url>http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1210966565p5/1305302.jpg</image_url>
  <about><![CDATA[R. K. Narayan is among the best known and most widely read Indian novelists writing in English.

R.K. Narayan was born in Madras, South India, in 1906, and educated there and at Maharaja's College in Mysore. His first novel, Swami and Friends and its successor, The Bachelor of Arts, are both set in the enchanting fictional territory of Malgudi and are only two out of the twelve novels he based there. In 1958 Narayan's work The Guide won him the National Prize of the Indian Literary Academy, his country's highest literary honor. 

In addition to his novels, Narayan has authored five collections of short stories, including A Horse and Two Goats, Malguidi Days, and Under the Banyan Tree, two travel books, two volumes of essays, a volume of memoirs, and the re-told legends Gods, Demons and Others, The Ramayana, and the Mahabharata. In 1980 he was awarded the A.C. Benson Medal by the Royal Society of Literature and in 1982 he was made an Honorary Member of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. 

Most of Narayan's work, starting with his first novel Swami and Friends (1935), captures many Indian traits while retaining a unique identity of its own. He was sometimes compared to the American writer William Faulkner, whose novels were also grounded in a compassionate humanism and celebrated the humour and energy of ordinary life.

Narayan who lived till age of ninety-four, died in 2001. He wrote for more than fifty years, and published until he was eighty seven. He wrote fourteen novels, five volumes of short stories, a number of travelogues and collections of non-fiction, condensed versions of Indian epics in English, and the memoir My Days.

-Wikipedia &amp; Amazon.co.uk

]]></about>    <gender>male</gender>  <hometown>Chennai</hometown>  <born_at>10/10/1906</born_at>  <died_at>05/13/2001</died_at>  
  
  
  <books>
        <book id="14082">
  <title><![CDATA[Malgudi Days]]></title>
  <authors>
    <author>
      <name><![CDATA[R.K. Narayan]]></name>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1305302.R_K_Narayan]]></link>
    </author>
      </authors>
  <average_rating>4.23</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>417</ratings_count>
  <published>1935</published>  
  
</book>
        <book id="129877">
  <title><![CDATA[The Guide: A Novel]]></title>
  <authors>
    <author>
      <name><![CDATA[R.K. Narayan]]></name>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1305302.R_K_Narayan]]></link>
    </author>
      </authors>
  <average_rating>3.78</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>282</ratings_count>
  <published>1958</published>  
  
</book>
        <book id="129876">
  <title><![CDATA[The Ramayana: A Shortened Modern Prose Version of the Indian Epic]]></title>
  <authors>
    <author>
      <name><![CDATA[R.K. Narayan]]></name>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1305302.R_K_Narayan]]></link>
    </author>
      </authors>
  <average_rating>3.74</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>223</ratings_count>
  <published>1972</published>  
  
</book>
        <book id="732482">
  <title><![CDATA[Swami and Friends (Phoenix Fiction Series)]]></title>
  <authors>
    <author>
      <name><![CDATA[R.K. Narayan]]></name>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1305302.R_K_Narayan]]></link>
    </author>
      </authors>
  <average_rating>4.19</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>191</ratings_count>
  <published>1978</published>  
  
</book>
        <book id="196743">
  <title><![CDATA[The English Teacher]]></title>
  <authors>
    <author>
      <name><![CDATA[R.K. Narayan]]></name>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1305302.R_K_Narayan]]></link>
    </author>
      </authors>
  <average_rating>3.69</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>172</ratings_count>
  <published>1978</published>  
  
</book>
        <book id="1007172">
  <title><![CDATA[Bachelor of Arts]]></title>
  <authors>
    <author>
      <name><![CDATA[R.K. Narayan]]></name>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1305302.R_K_Narayan]]></link>
    </author>
      </authors>
  <average_rating>3.80</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>127</ratings_count>
  <published>1978</published>  
  
</book>
        <book id="18724">
  <title><![CDATA[The Painter of Signs]]></title>
  <authors>
    <author>
      <name><![CDATA[R.K. Narayan]]></name>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1305302.R_K_Narayan]]></link>
    </author>
      </authors>
  <average_rating>3.58</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>120</ratings_count>
  <published>1976</published>  
  
</book>
        <book id="113126">
  <title><![CDATA[The Vendor of Sweets]]></title>
  <authors>
    <author>
      <name><![CDATA[R.K. Narayan]]></name>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1305302.R_K_Narayan]]></link>
    </author>
      </authors>
  <average_rating>3.70</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>103</ratings_count>
  <published>1967</published>  
  
</book>
        <book id="676921">
  <title><![CDATA[The Man-Eater of Malgudi]]></title>
  <authors>
    <author>
      <name><![CDATA[R.K. Narayan]]></name>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1305302.R_K_Narayan]]></link>
    </author>
      </authors>
  <average_rating>3.68</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>101</ratings_count>
  <published>1980</published>  
  
</book>
        <book id="196741">
  <title><![CDATA[A Tiger for Malgudi]]></title>
  <authors>
    <author>
      <name><![CDATA[R.K. Narayan]]></name>
      <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1305302.R_K_Narayan]]></link>
    </author>
      </authors>
  <average_rating>3.79</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>80</ratings_count>
  <published>1983</published>  
  
</book>
      </books>
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