Playwright, actor, and author Sujit Saraf's latest novel Harilal & Sons has won the FICCI Publishing award for Book of the Year-English category. The plot of the book is based on the author's grandfather's life whom he never met.
The novel is a heroic journey from Shekhavati in Rajasthan to Calcutta, Bogra and a village in Bihar. The protagonist Harilal sets up Harilal & Sons; a shop which sells jute, cotton, spices, rice, cigarettes and soap that grows into a large enterprise.
But the novel begins to end in 1972 as Hari is dying in his mansion. He is wondering why he attached to his family. The novel spans across seven decades, the earthquake in Bihar; the novel is also a record of Marwari history.
The book has also won 15th Raymond Crossword Book Award 2017 in the fiction category.The FICCI Award Committee consists of some of the major publishing houses in India. Some of the other categories in which the award are given are: Children’s Book of the Year - English, Children’s Book of the Year -Hindi, Book of the Year - Hindi, Upcoming Author – English, Upcoming Author – Hindi.
Author Sujit Saraf works at Infosys in the US and does theatre at night. He is also an author, a playwright, an actor, director, founder of Indian theatre Company Nataaka at Silicon Valley.
Some of his other works are: Limbo (1994), The Peacock Throne (2007).
The novel he wrote in 2009 "The Confession of Sultana Daku" is being adapted into a film starring Nawazuddin Siddiqui.
The book is available here.
Rasaaurdrama preview section is your best, most complete guide for all the theatre/films , big and small, coming your way soon. Happy Reading!