Across The Black Waters

Across The Black Waters, written in 1939, is widely regarded as outstanding among the earlier novels of Mulk Raj Anand. It has been translated into eleven European languages. With the British Council adapting this war-time novel - overlooking the claims of classics like All Quiet on the Western Front - into a play to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War I, Anand has finally got the recognition that has eluded this novel.

About the Author:

MULK RAJ ANAND was born in December, 1905, in Peshawar (no in Pakistan), and educated at the Universities of Punjab and London. He began his career by writing for T. S. Eliot's Criterion and went on to win international fame with his heart-warming portraits of the Indian landscape and its working class. Author of more than a dozen novels, of countless short stories and literary essays, he was honoured with Sahitya Akademi Award, the coveted Indian award for literary writing, in 1972.

Back of Book:

'Across the Black Waters is probably (Anand's ) best novel since Untouchable, for it exactly communicates the claustrophobic tension of men in the front line, the imminence of death, and the pervading sense of inevitability which is the source of Anand's anger, and at the same time, is at the root of so much Indian fiction. We have lose awareness that this is an Indian novel...'

'Anand makes a universal statement about the nature of war apart from the particular tragedy of the Indian spays in Flanders in 1914. His descriptions of brutality match in compassion and outrage, and perhaps also in poetic flair, those of Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon, or David Jones.'

Alastair Niven
British Literary Critic