Goat Days

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A simple and moving story about one of the great human concerns of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries: migration in search of a better life! Najeebs dearest wish is to work in the Gulf and earn enough money to send back home. He achieves his dream only to be propelled by a series of incidents, grim and absurd, into a slave-like existence herding goats in the middle of the Saudi desert. Memories of the lush, verdant landscape of his village and of his loving family haunt Najeeb whose only solace is the companionship of goats. In the end, the lonely young man contrives a hazardous scheme to escape his desert prison. Goat Days was published to acclaim in Malayalam and became a bestseller. One of the brilliant new talents of Malayalam literature, Benyamins wry and tender telling transforms this strange and bitter comedy of Najeebs life in the desert into a universal tale of loneliness and alienation.

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Benyamin has lived in Bahrain since 1992. His short story collection Euthanasia won the first award of the Abu Dhabi Malayalam Samajam. His novel Aadu Jeevitham (A Goats Life) won the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for 2009. Joseph Koyipally is an associate professor in comparative literature at the Central University of Kerala.