PRNewswire
New Delhi [India], February 12: A ground-breaking Indian graphic novel revolving around addiction, gambling, and comeuppance in God’s own country. An enchanting and humorous narrative of enslavement to the ‘king of all card games’, with a cast of colourful characters.
Artist and animator Joshy Benedict’s The Pig Flip has been brilliantly translated from the Malayalam by K.K. Muralidharan.
Published by HarperCollins
Paperback | Fiction | 120 pp | INR 599
Releasing 15 December 2023
‘A significant milestone in Indian graphic novels’ – Sarnath Banerjee
‘An arresting chronicle …enchanting and haunting.’
– Paul Zacharia
About the Book
At a secret spot on an abandoned island in rural Kerala, the village men gather at midnight and gamble, playing spot flip – the king of all card games. There we meet Babycha, a gambling addict trying to wean himself off the game after he gets married. We see him building a life with his beloved Paulikutty in the idyll of God’s own country. Until, inevitably, he succumbs to the lure of spot flip yet again and loses everything. Soon, his family is forced to take drastic measures to rein him in…
Brilliantly narrated and illustrated by Joshy Benedict, The Pig Flip – translated from the Malayalam by K.K. Muralidharan – is a surreal and narcotic tale of addiction and comeuppance that will linger hauntingly in your mind long after you’ve read it.
Author Joshy Benedict says, ‘I often feel the world is a blend of reality and stories. Sometimes, all of reality appears to be just a story. The story of The Pig Flip has this notion as one of its themes. I wrote it down with the clear intention of making it a graphic novel, one which would be written and drawn strictly with my own perspective, consciously avoiding influences from any graphic novel conventions I had seen. In the end it is another graphic novel, yet I am satisfied about how it has turned out to be something distinctly mine.’
Rahul Soni, Associate Publisher – Literary, HarperCollins India, says, ‘HarperCollins has previously published some stunning graphic narratives by artists such as Sarnath Banerjee, Appupen, Amruta Patil, Malik Sajad and Vishwajyoti Ghosh. Joining their ranks now is The Pig Flip by Joshy Benedict – a dark, funny, dreamlike tale that accomplishes the rare and doubly difficult feat of being stunningly illustrated and beautifully narrated. What makes me even happier is that this also happens to be a work of translation – and K.K. Muralidharan has done a superb job of rendering it into English. This is a really special work that I’m so proud to be publishing, and one that will provide readers both visual delight and a literary pleasure…’
Praise for The Pig Flip
‘In the fairy-tale foothills of the Western Ghats, a gambler wrestles with life, luck, destiny, and addiction. His confession, dispassionate and hilarious, is an arresting chronicle of enslavement. Etched in enchanting and haunting visuals, Joshy Benedict’s exuberant story walks us into the heart of a gambler – and an array of delightful characters.’ – Paul Zacharia
‘The Pig Flip is a significant milestone in Indian graphic novels and a pure delight. Joshy Benedict creates a Kerala that is in equal parts real as well as enchanted. He has built a local universe with all its particularities, created authentic characters, and understood the psychological tugs and pulls of addiction. The storytelling is sophisticated, the language pithy, the drawing skilled – there is an ease, crafted yet not performative, such as only a mature practitioner of the form can achieve.’ – Sarnath Banerjee
About the Author and the Translator
Joshy benedict is an artist and animator from Kerala. He graduated from the Government Fine Arts College, Thrissur. His debut graphic novel, The Pig Flip, garnered widespread acclaim within Kerala’s artistic and literary circles when it first appeared in Malayalam titled Pannimalath. Joshy’s first independent animation short, A Coconut Tree, was shown at festivals in India and abroad. He has held roles as a creative director and animator on numerous Indian and international animation projects.
K.K. Muralidharan is a production designer and graphic artist based in Mumbai, where he owns and operates his design studio. Born and raised in Wayanad, Murali graduated from the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, in 1994. He is also an illustrator, photographer, and translator.
About HarperCollins India
HarperCollins is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, having begun publishing in India in 1992. HarperCollins India publishes some of the finest writers from the Indian Subcontinent and around the world, publishing approximately 200 new books every year, with a print and digital catalogue of more than 2,000 titles across 10 imprints. Its authors have won almost every major literary award including the Man Booker Prize, JCB Prize, DSC Prize, New India Foundation Award, Atta Galatta Prize, Shakti Bhatt Prize, Gourmand Cookbook Award, Publishing Next Award, Tata Literature Live! Award, Gaja Capital Business Book Prize, BICW Award, Sushila Devi Award, Sahitya Akademi Award and Crossword Book Award. HarperCollins India also represents some of the finest publishers in the world including Harvard University Press, Gallup Press, Oneworld, Bonnier Zaffre, Usborne, Dover and Lonely Planet. HarperCollins India has won the Publisher of the Year Award four times at Tata Literature Live! in 2022, 2021, 2018 and 2016, and at Publishing Next in 2021 and 2015. HarperCollins India is a subsidiary of HarperCollins Publishers.
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