A man offering curses and prayers, gifts and threats to his favourite deity before embarking upon a day of thieving…

A woman in a packed bus, desperate to get home before her clothes are soaked with menstrual blood, but also determined to save a seat for a fellow woman…

A loyal, ageing party worker, hoping to finally contest an election, but discovering instead the worm in the apple of democracy…

Set for the most part in the small towns and villages of present-day Tamil Nadu, these stories describe the aspirations and agonies of the men and women living and working there: what they want is to survive and thrive as human beings.

Imayam — winner of the Sahitya Akademi Award, and one of the most significant Tamil writers today — peers into their lives and observes them with rare empathy and attention. Written in spare, modern prose spiced with pungent regional dialect, and brought brilliantly to new life in Vasantha Surya’s luminous translation, An Order from the Sky and Other Stories redefines the possibilities of Indian fiction.