This special omnibus edition brings together the three great historical novels Sunil Gangopadhyay wrote. The Bengal Renaissance forms the backdrop to the Sahitya Akademi Award-winning Those Days, in which a feudal aristocracy awakens to its social obligations. In its sequel First Light, a turn-of-the-century Bengal, led by Rabindranath Tagore and Swami Vivekananda, awakens to a new, modern sensibility. And in The Lonely Emperor, the story of India’s greatest professional stage actor Sisir Bhaduri, the past gives way to the present as the country gains independence. Those Days (Sei Somoy), First Light (Prothom Alo), The Lonely Emperor (Nisshongo Samrat) Translated by Aruna Chakravarti and Sreejata Guha

Winner of the Sahitya Akademi Award An award-winning novel that uses both vast panoramic views and lovingly reconstructed detail to provide an unforgettable picture of nineteenth-century Bengal. The Bengal Renaissance and the 1857 uprising form the backdrop to Those Days, a saga of human frailties and strength. The story revolves around the immensely wealthy Singha and Mukherjee families, and the intimacy that grows between them. Ganganarayan Singha's love for Bindubasini, the widowed daughter of the Mukherjees, flounders on the rocks of orthodoxy even as his zamindar father, Ramkamal, finds happiness in the arms of the courtesan, Kamala Sundari. Bimbabati, Ramkamal's wife, is left to cope with her loneliness. A central theme of the novel is the manner in which the feudal aristocracy, sunk in ritual and pleasure, slowly awakens to its social obligations. Historical personae interact with fictional protagonists to enrich the narrative. Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, the reformer; Michael Madhusudan Dutt, the poet; the father and son duo of Dwarkanath and Debendranath Tagore; Harish Mukherjee, the journalist; Keshab Chandra Sen, the Brahmo Samaj radical; David Hare and John Bethune, the English educationists—these and a host of others walk the streets of Calcutta again, to bring alive a momentous time.

Eighteenth-century Bengal. In the midst of feudal and oppressive times, a poet-philosopher is born who brings religions together and binds people through his songs. As time passes, his songs become part of folklore but the actual man remains shrouded in mystery, perhaps out of a habitual self-effacement that was part of Lalan Fakir's philosophy of life. Lalan does not subscribe to any conventional religious thoughts and abjures all religious rituals, believing instead in the humanistic doctrine of the centrality and validity of Man. His unconventional attitude earns him the ire of both orthodox Hindus and Muslims but attracts a large following among the poorer sections of society. In a brilliant fictional biography of this mystic poet about whom very little written history exists, novelist Sunil Gangopadhyay recreates the life and times of Lalan Fakir in simple yet touching prose.

The sequel to the award-winning and critically-acclaimed Those Days, First Light is a magnificent novel set at the turn of the twentieth century in a Bengal where the old and young India are jostling for space. Prominent among its many characters are Rabindranath Tagore or Robi, the young, dreamy poet, torn between his art and the love for his beautiful, ethereal sister-in-law, Kadambari Devi, and the handsome, dynamic Naren Datta, later to become Swami Vivekananda, who abandons his Brahmo Samaj leanings and surrenders himself completely to his Guru, Sri Ramakrishna. The story also touches upon the lives of the men and women rising to the call of nationalism; the doctors and scientists determined to pull their land out of the morass of superstition and blind beliefs, and the growing theatre movement of Bengal, with its brilliant actors and actresses who leave behind the squalor of their lives every night to deliver lines breathtaking in their beauty. Through all this runs the story of Bharat and Bhumisuta - one an illegitimate prince, the other a slave who rises to become the finest actress of her age - who cling to their self-respect and love in a society which has little time for people like them. Grand in its scale and crackling with the energy of its prose, First Light is a rich and comprehensive portrait of Bengal, from its sleepy, slow-changing villages to the bustling city of Calcutta where the genteel and the grotesque live together. Equally, it is a chronicle of a whole nation waking up to a new, modern sensibility.

After a secret mission in Afghanistan ends in a terrible accident, Raja Roychowdhury, fondly known as Kakababu, resigns as the director of the Archaeological Survey of India and goes home to his second-hand books. But the desire to hunt down old, unsolved mysteries of the world refuses to leave him alone. Despite living with an amputated leg, Kakababu insists on taking biannual holidays to remote, little-known areas - and refuses to tell anyone what he does there. Now that he's old enough, Shontu, Kakababu's nephew, has finally been allowed to accompany Kakababu on these mysterious trips. And he cannot wait for the thrilling adventures to begin!In 'The Emperor's Lost Head', Kakababu takes Shontu to Kashmir to find a hidden sulphur mine. Except that that's a lie, and Shontu has no idea how to get his uncle to admit the truth.'The King of the Emerald Isles' finds uncle and nephew in an uncharted island in the Indian Ocean. Stubbornly secretive as always, Kakababu refuses to tell Shontu what has brought him to the dangerous island. Is he ready for the answers he might find?

A novel of India through the eyes of four protagonists, reincarnated several times over 2,000 years. They retain the same names and are always involved with each other. A tale of love, war, possession and dispossession. By an Indian woman writing in Urdu.

The humorous escapades of Narayan Gangopadhyay’s immortal character and his ragtag bunch of friends, now in English The leader of a gang of four, Tenida is a brash, loud-mouthed fellow with a large heart and a gargantuan appetite. Along with the quick-witted Kyabla, the Bangladeshi-accented Habul and the cowardly Pela, Tenida falls headlong into one misadventure after the other, that is, when he is not telling tall tales of his own heroism. Full of wit and old-world charm, The Best of Tenida is dotted with vignettes of life in yesteryear Calcutta. Featuring five of Narayan Gangopadhyay’s best-known short stories and his timeless novella Charmurti, this English translation introduces one of the most beloved figures in Bengali children’s literature to a wider audience.