Upamanyu Chatterjee

Chatterjee was born in 1959{{cite news |last1=Dirda |first1=Michael |title=ENGLISH, AUGUST |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/20/AR2006042001651.html |access-date=30 July 2021 |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=April 23, 2006}} in Patna, Bihar.{{cite web|last=Library of Congress New Delhi Office|title=Upamanyu Chatterjee, 1959–|url=https://www.loc.gov/acq/ovop/delhi/salrp/upamanyuchatterjee.html|work=The South Asian Literary Recordings Project|publisher=US Library of Congress}}{{cite news |last1=Sharma |first1=Rupinder |title=A new chapter |url=https://www.telegraphindia.com/culture/a-new-chapter/cid/536616 |access-date=30 July 2021 |work=The Telegraph |date=March 21, 2010}} He attended Delhi University, graduated from St. Stephens College, and became a 1983 batch Indian Administrative Service officer. He became a Writer in Residence at the University of Kent in 1990. He became a Director in the Ministry of Human Resource Development in India in 1998.

Chatterjee has written and published short stories since the 1980s, including stories republished in the 2019 collection The Assassination of Indira Gandhi.{{cite news |last1=Sipahimalani |first1=Sanjay |title=A collection of Upamanyu Chatterjee's short stories embodies his signature writing against the grain |url=https://scroll.in/article/923130/a-collection-of-upamanyu-chatterjees-short-stories-embodies-his-signature-writing-against-the-grain |access-date=30 July 2021 |work=Scroll.in |date=May 12, 2019}}{{cite news |last1=Bhattacharya |first1=Soumya |title=Review: The Assassination of Indira Gandhi; The Collected Stories of Upamanyu Chatterjee |url=https://www.hindustantimes.com/books/review-the-assassination-of-indira-gandhi-the-collected-stories-of-upamanyu-chatterjee/story-V06dRZ99h0LEvp35afe8CO.html |access-date=30 July 2021 |work=Hindustan Times |date=June 8, 2019}}{{cite news |last1=Banerjie |first1=Indranil |title=Book Review: A master at the height of his craft presents curious bouquet of styles |url=https://www.deccanchronicle.com/lifestyle/books-and-art/280719/a-master-at-the-height-of-his-craft-presents-curious-bouquet-of-styles.html |access-date=31 July 2021 |work=Deccan Chronicle |date=July 28, 2019}}

His 1988 novel, English, August : An Indian story was adapted into the film English, August. His novel The Last Burden was published in 1993. A sequel to English, August, The Mammaries of the Welfare State was published in 2000. His fourth novel, Weight Loss, a dark comedy, was published in 2006. His fifth novel Way To Go, a sequel to The Last Burden, was published in 2010 and longlisted for the Man Asian Literary Prize.{{cite news |last1=Kehe |first1=Marjorie |title=10 Asian authors you need to know: the Man Asian Literary Prize longlist |url=https://www.csmonitor.com/Books/2010/1214/10-Asian-authors-you-need-to-know-the-Man-Asian-Literary-Prize-longlist/Way-to-Go-by-Upamanyu-Chatterjee |access-date=30 July 2021 |work=The Christian Science Monitor |date=December 14, 2010}} In 2014, he published Fairy Tales at Fifty.{{cite news |last1=Kanjilal |first1=Pratik |title=In Fairy tales at Fifty, Upamanyu Chatterjee serves up characters who are cruel and vile |url=https://indianexpress.com/article/lifestyle/life-style/in-fairy-tales-at-fifty-upamanyu-chatterjee-serves-up-characters-who-are-cruel-and-vile/ |access-date=30 July 2021 |work=The Indian Express |date=December 7, 2014}}{{cite news |last1=Kuruvilla |first1=Elizabeth |title=Book Review: Fairy Tales at Fifty |url=https://www.livemint.com/Leisure/pLAyXVaxYJgY7MGxGvuL2H/Book-Review-Fairy-Tales-At-Fifty.html |access-date=30 July 2021 |work=Mint |date=December 13, 2014}} Indrapramit Das writes in a review for The Hindu Business Line, "Like a David Lynch film set in India, Upamanyu Chatterjee’s latest book is a monstrous fairytale that respects the darkness of the real world."{{cite news |last1=Das |first1=Indrapramit |title=An anti-celebration |url=https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/blink/read/an-anticelebration/article6887349.ece |access-date=30 July 2021 |work=Business Line |date=January 24, 2018}} In 2018, his novella The Revenge of the Non-vegetarian was published.{{cite news |last1=Gupta |first1=Trisha |title=Upamanyu Chatterjee's new novel is a minimalist study of revenge (and features Agastya Sen's father) |url=https://scroll.in/article/889060/upamanyu-chatterjees-new-novel-is-a-minimalist-study-of-revenge-and-features-agastya-sens-father |access-date=30 July 2021 |work=Scroll.in |date=August 4, 2018}}{{cite news |last1=Bhardwaj |first1=Deeksha |title=Upamanyu Chatterjee's novella turns the lynching narrative into one of cold-blooded murder |url=https://theprint.in/pageturner/book-bites/upamanyus-novella-turns-lynching-narrative-into-one-of-cold-blooded-murder/90057/ |access-date=30 July 2021 |work=ThePrint |date=July 29, 2018}} Pratik Kanjilal writes in a review for The Indian Express, "In a way, it is a back story to his first novel".{{cite news |last1=Kanjilal |first1=Pratik |title=A Meaty Issue |url=https://indianexpress.com/article/lifestyle/books/upamanyu-chatterjee-the-revenge-of-the-non-vegetarian-book-review-5219433/ |access-date=30 July 2021 |work=The Indian Express |date=June 16, 2018}} Uddalak Mukherjee writes in a review for The Telegraph, "Writers cannot be faulted for turning towards their most successful work for inspiration after dishing out a few ordinary books", and "The result [...] is a pacy, tautly-written narrative."{{cite news |last1=Mukherjee |first1=Uddalak |title=The Revenge of the Non-Vegetarian resurrects Upamanyu Chatterjee |url=https://www.telegraphindia.com/culture/books/meat-murder-and-morality/cid/1217048 |access-date=31 July 2021 |work=The Telegraph |date=August 10, 2018}}

In The Hindu, Anjana Sharma equates Upamanyu's vision of humanity with W.B. Yeats. She writes, "Eighty years apart, cultures, civilisations, even craft and temperament apart, Yeats and Chatterjee share an identical vision of a de-centered, de-natured world."{{cite web|last=Sharma|first=Anjana|title=What others have to say about Upamanyu Chatterjee|url=https://www.complete-review.com/authors/chattu.htm|work=Upamanyu Chatterjee at the complete review|access-date=26 June 2011}} Mukul Dikshit opines that Chatterjee has, for the first time, focused on a "new class" of Westernised urban Indians who were hitherto ignored in the regional as well as the English fiction of India.{{citation needed|date=July 2021}}

In 2009, he was awarded Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in recognition of his "exemplary contribution to contemporary literature"{{cite web|title=Upamanyu Chatterjee Gets French Award Officier Des Arts Et Des Lettres|url=http://www.india-server.com/news/upamanyu-chatterjee-gets-french-award-5130.html|access-date=26 June 2011}} In 2004, he was awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award for The Mammaries of the Welfare State.{{cite news|last=UNI|title=Sahitya Akademi award winners|url=http://www.hindu.com/2004/12/23/stories/2004122304631200.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041230124819/http://www.hindu.com/2004/12/23/stories/2004122304631200.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=30 December 2004|access-date=26 June 2011|newspaper=The Hindu|date=22 December 2004}} The novel Way To Go was shortlisted for The Hindu Best Fiction Award in 2010. He also won JCB Prize for literature, 2024 for the book "Lorenzo Search For The Meaning Of Life"

• List of Indian writers

{{reflist}}

• {{OL author|568143A}}
• [https://www.loc.gov/acq/ovop/delhi/salrp/upamanyuchatterjee.html Upamanyu Chatterjee] at The South Asian Literary Recordings Project, Library of Congress; New Delhi Office, India
• [http://www.complete-review.com/authors/chattu.htm Upamanyu Chatterjee] at the Complete Review

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Category:1959 births

Category:Writers from Patna

Category:Academics of the University of Kent

Category:Bengali writers

Category:Indian male novelists

Category:English-language writers from India

Category:Living people

Category:Recipients of the Sahitya Akademi Award in English

Category:Delhi University alumni

Category:Indian Administrative Service officers

Category:Officiers of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres

Category:20th-century Indian novelists

Category:Novelists from Bihar

Category:20th-century Indian male writers