Skip to the page
Perumalmurugan

Perumalmurugan

பெருமாள்முருகன்

See all his books
Cover of One Part Woman, English edition
English · Penguin
Cover of மாதொருபாகன், Tamil edition
Tamil · Kalachuvadu Publications
Perumalmurugan
Perumalmurugan, 2019. Photo: Augustus Binu, CC BY-SA 3.0.

Perumalmurugan is one of Tamil literature’s most distinctive contemporary voices, known for his deeply rooted portrayals of rural life, caste, culture, and human relationships. Drawing from the landscapes and lived experiences of Kongunadu, his writing brings to life the quiet complexities of ordinary people and the social worlds they inhabit. An acclaimed novelist, poet, and short-story writer, he continues to expand the boundaries of Tamil literature with works that are intimate, unflinching, and profoundly human.

More about his life
Once, in a village, there was a goat. No one knew where she was born. The birth of an ordinary life never leaves a trace, does it?
From Poonachi · translated by N. Kalyan Raman

Start here

New books

Cover of There Is Nothing That Wouldn’t Change

There Is Nothing That Wouldn’t Change

Conversation · English · Hamish Hamilton · 2026

Born of a shared belief in a more equal and compassionate world, There Is Nothing That Wouldn’t Change brings together an extraordinary, intimate conversation between acclaimed writer Perumalmurugan and social activist Bezwada Wilson. Their friendship, forged during one of the most turbulent phases of Murugan’s life, lends this unscripted exchange a rare and powerful honesty.

Cover of பீக்கதைகள்

பீக்கதைகள்

Peekkathaikal

Short stories · Tamil · Kalachuvadu Publications · 2026

பதினான்கு கதைகளுடன் 2004ஆம் ஆண்டு முதற்பதிப்பாக வந்த ‘பீக்கதைகள்’ நூலில் மேலும் இருகதைகளைப் புதிதாகச் சேர்த்துப் பதினாறு கதைகளுடன் புதிய பதிப்பாக வெளியாகிறது. இதிலுள்ள கதைகள் ‘பெருமாள்முருகன் சிறுகதைகள்’ தொகுப்பில் உள்ளன எனினும் வாசகர் விரும்பித் தொடர்ந்து கேட்டுக் கொண்டிருந்ததால் இதன் வரலாற்று முக்கியத்துவத்தை உணர்ந்து மீண்டும் தனிநூலாக உருவாகியுள்ளது. உணவைப் போல நம் அன்றாட வாழ்வில் கழிப்பும் முக்கியமானது. ஆனால் உணவைப் பற்றிப் பலபடப் பேசும் நாம் கழிப்பைப் பற்றிப் பேசத் தயங்குகிறோம் அல்லது மறைமுகப் பேசுகிறோம். நுணுகிப் பார்த்தால் பேசுவதேயில்லை என்றே சொல்லி விடலாம். பேசுவதற்கான வாய்ப்பை நவீன காலம் வழங்கியுள்ளது. அதைப் பற்றிக்கொண்டு பல்வேறு சிக்கல்களை, மனநிலைகளை இக்கதைகள் மூலமாகப் பெருமாள்முருகன் சித்திரிக்கிறார். யாவரும் வாசித்துப் பயன்பெற வேண்டிய நூல் இது.

Cover of கழிமுகம்

கழிமுகம்

Estuary

Novel · Tamil · Kalachuvadu Publications · 2026

A new novel by the acclaimed writer Perumalmurugan. Moving away from the Tamil norm of writing about childhood and nostalgia, Perumalmurugan weaves the present into fiction. Kazhimugam travels deep, beyond the reliability of documentation, into profound artistic nuances. He writes about the anxiety and pressure built into father-son relationships in contemporary Tamil society.

Cover of Il dio per metà donna

Il dio per metà donna

One Part Woman

Novel · Italian · Utopia Editore · 2026 · translated by Dorotea Operato

Il matrimonio tra Kali e Ponna è adombrato dall’infertilità. Il silenzio che domina nella loro casa, un tempo felice, è infranto dall’eco incessante dei pettegolezzi del villaggio, che li giudica e li spinge verso il baratro dell’angoscia. Nell’India rurale, la sterilità di Ponna è una vergogna, mentre Kali, tra i sorrisi maliziosi dei compaesani, è incoraggiato a sposare un’altra donna. Disperati, i due coniugi si aggrappano a riti e suppliche per gli dei, inseguendo il sogno della genitorialità tra superstizioni ed espiazioni. Fino a piegarsi all’antica tradizione, un tabù, per cui ogni anno, in occasione dei festeggiamenti per il dio per metà donna, alle mogli senza figli è concesso unirsi a uomini sconosciuti, manifestazioni fugaci del divino, con l’auspicio di concepire.

Cover of The Land and the Shadows

The Land and the Shadows

Essays · English · Hamish Hamilton · 2025 · translated by Gita Subramanian

Cinema, for Perumalmurugan, was never just flickering images on a screen. It was a field of experience, a gathering ground, a mirror held up to the land itself. In The Land and the Shadows, he returns to the theatres of his youth and to the decades when Tamil cinema became inseparable from the life of the people—the 1950s through the 1970s.

A road near Tiruchengode lined with palmyra palms
Palmyra palms on the Tiruchengode–Namakkal road.

Read him in your language

Latest interviews

All interviews