Serious Men

Ayyan Mani will not be constrained by Indian traditions. Despite working at the Institute of Theory and Research in Mumbai as the lowly personal assistant to a brilliant but insufferable astronomer, he dreams of more for himself and his family.

Ever wily and ambitious, Ayyan weaves two plots: the first to cheer up his weary, soap-opera-addicted wife by creating outrageous fictions around their ten-year-old son; the other to sabotage the married director by using his boss's seeming romance with the institute's first female--and very attractive--researcher. Meanwhile, as the institute's Brahmins wage a vicious war over theories about alien life, Ayyan sees his deceptions intertwining and setting in motion a series of extraordinary events he cannot stop. Unfailingly funny and irreverent, Serious Men is at once a hilarious portrayal of runaway egos and ambitions and a moving portrait of love and its strange workings.

One of 2010's "First Novels to Savor." --Sunday Telegraph

Author: Manu Joseph
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Published: 08/02/2010
Pages: 320
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.60lbs
Size: 8.30h x 5.50w x 1.10d
ISBN: 9780393338591
Award: Literary Award - Winner

Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 05/10/2010 pg. 1
Booklist 07/01/2010 pg. 33
Library Journal 07/01/2010 pg. 72
New York Times Book Review 09/05/2010 pg. 11
New York Times Book Review 09/12/2010 pg. 30

About the Author
Joseph, Manu: - Manu Joseph, who lives in New Delhi, is a columnist for the International Herald Tribune. His first novel, Serious Men, won the PEN/Open Book Award and was shortlisted for the Man Asian Literary Prize.