Maupassant and a Cigar - An Intimate Biography of Pudumaipithan

Pudumaipithan (1906-1948) is widely regarded as one of the greatest writers of short stories in Tamil, and as the harbinger of literary modernism in the language. He is remembered for having revolutionized Tamil prose into a medium through which he approached the lives and emotions of subaltern urban and rural characters, with a distinctly modern sensibility. This biography, written immediately after Pudumaipithan’s death, by someone very close to him, remains the most authentic biography of the writer till date.