Action-packed South Indian stories

Most of the writing that gets translated into English from Indian languages is serious literary fiction, focused either on social issues or ancient history. But there is an entirely different universe of lurid, fast-paced thrillers that are massively more popular—they're just not usually considered worthy of translation.

The Tamil language has a particularly robust pulp fiction scene that's been going strong since the 1930s. Here are some recent covers:

In our first two anthologies, released in 2008 and 2010, Blaft Publications worked with translator Pritham K. Chakravarthy to bring the work of several bestselling Tamil pulp authors into English for the first time, to an enthusiastic reception well past our expectations. 

Since then, many readers have been asking us for more. 

The contents

Here's what we've got lined up for Volume 3:

• Operation Nova by Tamilmagan. A science fiction epic that made waves when it was serialized in the Tamil weekly Anantha Vikatan last year. The story begins with a young man being abducted from his seat at Sathyam Cinemas in Chennai and beamed to a faraway spacecraft. "Harder" than most Indian-language science fiction, the book also features a race of nitrogen-eating aliens, a disembodied brain, and extraterrestrial encounters with Bill Gates and Angelina Jolie.

   

• White Rose, Black Cat by Rajesh Kumar. The world's most prolific living fiction writer (he's been publishing 3 novels a month since 1968) serves up a deadly dish of murder, drugs, poison, illicit love affairs, corrupt officials, and local rowdies.

   

• Shabaash, Susheela! by Pattukkottai Prabakar. A strange woman who claims to have premonitions of the future shows up in the offices of Moonlight Agencies, and warns the intrepid detective duo Bharat and Susheela about an imminent attempt to murder a popular film actress.

   

• Look Out, Narendran! by Subha. A mysterious bomber blows up the Mambakkam Police Station, and warns that unless his demands are met, the Taj Mahal will be next. Can Narendran and Vaijayanthi catch him before he destroys the country's most famous monument?

   

• Nowhere to Hide by Indra Soundar Rajan. A journalist arrives in a village near Thirunelveli to investigate a rash of murders. There he meets a young girl possessed by an angry spirit, who may be the key to catching the killer.

   

As before, we'll also include an assortment of author interviews and jokes from the pulp magazine front pages, as well as a full-color gallery of amazing pulp covers.

The cover art

Shyam, who painted the femmes fatales on our first two covers (download here), will be painting a new lethal enchantress to adorn the cover for Volume 3. Shyam is a virtuoso illustrator who deftly turns out dozens of striking, original images every week to meet the needs of top magazine publishers across all four southern Indian states. 

Read an excerpt

Getting a translation pitch-perfect is a tricky job. We want to keep as much local flavour as possible while still making the English sound natural no matter where you're from. We have a new translation team for Volume 3; to get a taste of our work, you can check out the lead story, which was published online last month by the UK literary magazine Granta. 

Advance order the book–or check out the higher-tier rewards

We love selecting stories, translating, editing, and designing great books. The part of independent publishing we don't love so much is hassling distributors to put the books on the shelves of the (dwindling) brick-and-mortar bookshops, and then fighting to collect money after they sell.

If we can get enough of you to pledge to buy the third volume in advance, we can pay all the authors and translators and editor and illustrator up front and have the book out by December. (But be sure check out the fun rewards for more generous contributions, too!)

Here's how we'll use the money

A few nice things people have said about us

• "There are two reasons to buy [The Blaft Anthology of Tamil Pulp Fiction]. One, it's a wonderful read and, two, it's the best-produced paperback in the history of Indian publishing."

  —Mukul Kesavan, Outlook Magazine

• "India needs about fifty more Blafts."

  —Jason Grunebaum, interview in The Quarterly Conversation

• "Tamil pulp is the hottest thing discovered since sliced bread and heavy breathing."

  —Pritish Nandy, on Twitter

• "[Blaft's] list of publications is excitingly idiosyncratic... [reading their pulp fiction translations is] like chewing on a big barrel of popcorn at the movies or absent-mindedly eating an entire spindle of cotton candy at a country fair."

  —Daisy Rockwell, Chapati Mystery

You can still help us out by telling all your friends! Please use the share tools to let your social media circles know about our campaign!

(Big thanks to Radha Sunder for the video!)