Across the Black Waters

{{Short description|1939 novel by Mulk Raj Anand}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2024}}

{{Infobox book|

| name = Across the Black Waters

| title_orig =

| translator =

| image = Across the Black Waters.jpg

| caption = First edition

| author = Mulk Raj Anand

| illustrator =

| cover_artist =

| country = India

| language = English

| series =

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| release_date = 1939

| english_release_date =

| media_type = Print

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| oclc = 4513599

| preceded_by = The Village

| followed_by = The Sword and the Sickle

}}

Across the Black Waters is an English novel by the Indian writer Mulk Raj Anand first published in 1939. It describes the experience of Lalu, a sepoy in the Indian Army fighting on behalf of Britain against the Germans in France during World War I. He is portrayed by the author as an innocent peasant whose poor family was evicted from their land and who only vaguely understands what the war is about. The book has been described as Anand's best work since the Untouchable.{{cite news|last=Wadehra|first=Randeep|title=The war novel by Mulk Raj Anand|url=http://www.tribuneindia.com/2000/20000806/spectrum/books.htm|accessdate=9 December 2011|newspaper=The Tribune |location= India|date=6 August 2000}}

In Lalu's tragedy lied the tragedy of the Indian village and Anand dramatizes a poignant truth: to disposses any one of land is to deny him an identity.—Basavaraj Naikar

The book is part of a trilogy (along with The Village and The Sword and the Sickle) that chronicles the life of Lalu as he struggles to rise from the bottom of Indian society. In the background is India's fight for independence.{{cite web|title=Anand wrote his Village trilogy: The Village, Across the Black Waters), and The Sword and the Sickle|url=http://www.mannmuseum.com/anand-wrote-his-village-trilogy-the-village-across-the-black-waters-and-the-sword-and-the-sickle/|publisher=mannmuseum.com/|accessdate=9 December 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111117162116/http://www.mannmuseum.com/anand-wrote-his-village-trilogy-the-village-across-the-black-waters-and-the-sword-and-the-sickle/|archive-date=17 November 2011|url-status=dead}}

This book is the only Indian English novel that is set in World War I and portrays the experiences of Lalu, who only wants to reclaim the piece of land his family lost as a reward for serving. But when he returns from war, he finds his family destroyed and his parents dead.{{cite book|last=Naikar|first=Basavaraj|title=Indian English literature, Volume 7|year=2008|publisher=Atlantic Publishers & Distributors|isbn=978-81-7373-441-0|pages=116–121|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_eFX0DpGlRYC&q=Across+the+Black+Waters&pg=PA112}} The novel's larger themes are that of war and death Lalu encounters Western culture.{{cite book| last = Ramakrishna| first = D.| title = Anand's Vision of War and Death in 'Across the Black Waters'| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=rkLrzGUU9vUC&pg=PA95| year = 2007| publisher = Atlantic Publishers & Dist| isbn = 978-81-269-0399-3| pages = 96–104 }}