When Khushwant Singh died at the age of 99 in 2014, he had over a 100 books to his name and was widely regarded as one of country’s greatest writers. Singh’s writings was a combination of his style, humour, simplicity and great storytelling.
Now, a new book ‘Me, The Jokerman’ assembles over 50 essays, most of them unpublished in book form, in the categories that he had made his own — religion, nature, sex, autobiography, and, above all, humour.
“Entertaining, insightful as well as laugh-out-loud funny, this is a book that will delight Khushwant Singh’s legions of admirers,” publishers Aleph Book Company said.
The book has been edited by Singh’s daughter Mala Dayal.
Singh’s published six novels are — ‘Train to Pakistan’, ‘I Shall Not Hear the Nightingale’, ‘Delhi: A Novel’, ‘The Company of Women’, ‘Burial at Sea’ and ‘The Sunset Club’. His several books of short stories have been published together as ‘The Portrait of a Lady’.
Among his other books are ‘99: Unforgettable Fiction, Non-fiction, Poetry & Humour’, ‘The Freethinker’s Prayerbook’, ‘A History of the Sikhs’; an autobiography, ‘Truth, Love and a Little Malice’; a biography, ‘Ranjit Singh: Maharaja of the Punjab’; and a book of non-fiction, ‘The Return of Indira Gandhi’.
In addition, he published translations of Hindi and Urdu novels, short stories and poetry, notably ‘Umrao Jan Ada’ by Mirza Mohammad Hadi Ruswa, Rajinder Singh Bedi’s ‘I Take This Woman’ and Iqbal’s ‘Shikwa’ and ‘Jawab-i-Shikwa’.