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O.V.Vijayan is a writer and novelist in Malayalam, and was born in Palakkad District, Kerala, India on 2 July 1930. He is the person who brought about a vast change in Malayalam Literature through the most famous of his works, Khasakinte Itihasam (The Legends of Khasak) (1969). He wrote many other novels, short stories, essays and satire. He is also a cartoonist. The famous malayalam poet OV Usha is his sister.

O V Vijayan was almost certainly India's foremost fabulist in the recent past. An extraordinary writer with enormous range, he wrote everything from a semi-fictional history of his feudal-landlord family, 'Generations' to the scatological 'The Saga of Dharmapuri'. The sweep of his writing is evocative of such giants as William Faulkner and Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

While 'Khasak' continues to be his best-known work as an angry young man, his later works, 'The Eternity of Grace', 'The Path of the Prophet' and 'Generations' bespeak a mature transcendentalist.

While he lived outside Kerala for most of his adult life, spending time in Delhi and in Hyderabad (where his wife Teresa was from), he never forgot his beloved Palakkad, where the 'wind whistles through the passes and the clattering black palms'. He created a magical Malabar in his works, one where the mundane and the inspired lived side-by-side. His Vijayan-land, a state of mind, is portrayed vividly in his work.

O V Vijayan was unlucky not to win India's principal literary prize, the Jnanpith, possibly because he did not endear himself to the political powers-that-be through his trenchant cartoons. Vijayan's fans were also perennially hopeful that the Nobel Prize would finally recognize him.

O V Vijayan passed away on March 30, 2005.

Novels

Khasakinte Itihasam (The Legends of Khasak)- 1969
Dharmapuranam (The Saga of Dharmapuri)- 1985
Gurusagaram (Eternity of Grace)- 1987
Madhuram Gayathi - 1990
Pravachakante Vazhi (The Path of the Prophet)- 1992
Thalamurakal (Generations)- 1997

Other Creations

He has written many volumes of Short Stories, the first volume of which was published in 1957 - 'Three Wars'. He has also written many essays, and also published one book of cartoons- Ithiri neramboke, Ithiri Darshanam (A Little Pastime, A little Vision)- 1990.

O V Vijayan's best known collection in English is 'After the Hanging and other stories' which contains several jewel-like masterpieces, in particular the title story about a poor, semi-literate peasant going to the jail to receive the body of his son who has been hanged; 'The Wart' and 'The Foetus' about the trauma of the fascist Emergency; the transcendental 'The Aiport', 'The Little Ones', and several others.

An incisive writer in English as well, Vijayan translated most of his own works from Malayalam to English. His Selected Works has been published as an omnibus volume by Penguin India.

Awards

1970- Odakkuzhal Award, for Khasakinte Itihasam
1990-State and Central Academy awards of Gurusagaram
1991-Vayalar Award for Gurusagaram
1992-Muttathu Varkey Award for Khasakinte Itihasam

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 '''O.V.Vijayan''' is a writer and novelist in [[Malayalam]], and was born in [[Palakkad]] District, [[Kerala]], [[India]] on  2 July 1930.  He is the person who brought about a vast change in Malayalam Literature through the most famous of his works, Khasakinte Itihasam (The Legends of Khasak) (1969).  He wrote many other novels, short stories, essays and satire.  He is also a cartoonist.  The famous malayalam poet OV Usha is his sister. <br/>
-O V Vijayan was almost certainly the foremost fabulist in India over the latter half of the twentieth century. An extraordinary writer with an enormous range, he wrote everything from a semi-fictional history of his feudal-landlord family, 'Generations' to the scatological 'The Saga of Dharmapuri'. The sweep of his writing is evocative to such giants as William Faulkner and Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
+O V Vijayan was almost certainly India's foremost fabulist in the recent past. An extraordinary writer with enormous range, he wrote everything from a semi-fictional history of his feudal-landlord family, 'Generations' to the scatological 'The Saga of Dharmapuri'. The sweep of his writing is evocative of such giants as William Faulkner and Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
 While 'Khasak' continues to be his best-known work as an angry young man, his later works, 'The Eternity of Grace', 'The Path of the Prophet' and 'Generations' bespeak a mature transcendentalist.