Named after the black river that flows through it, Karuthupuzha is a sleepy little town in the interiors of south India. But wait till you meet its inhabitants. A stingy accountant who wants to be a philanthropist, a godman with a strange fetish, the owner of an old age home who trades in pornography, a rationalist brought down to earth by an orphan's curse, and Savithri, a kind-hearted grandmother filling her secret room with there's a surprise waiting at the turn of every page.Told in a fresh new voice that's wry yet humane, these tales will remind you of R.K. Narayan's Malgudi stories, full of life's little ironies and delicate wisdom