ARUP KUMAR DUTTA is a fulltime author and freelance journalist from Assam in North-East India who has attained international recognition. A prolific and versatile writer and scholar, during a span of five decades he has written short-fiction, long-fiction, non-fiction, satires, newspaper editorials, articles and columns, as well as books for young adults. So far he has written 18 books for adults and 17 adventure novels for young people. He has been not only acknowledged as a pioneer in English writing in the North-East, but also as a writer who has spent a lifetime familiarizing the rest of India about the history and culture of this region.
Latest Book
The Bag
Publisher: Olive Turtle
Year: 2018
The Bag zooms in on one of the all too many poignant mini-dramas that are played out in the conflict zones of North-East India, where no one wins. Senior police inspector Lahiri, with his pastiche dispassion and pretend cynicism, the dreaded United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) Hiren Bora, and his 12-year old brother Okon, each of them a victim of their circumstances quite not to their own making, portrayed with startling realism. The novel probes the psyche of a morally righteous village youth with strong ideals and big dreams, compassionately delineates his transformation into a militant, and explores the complexities that exists between him and his adolescent younger brother.
The tale unfolds at a lethargic pace, though occasionally punctuated with short and furious bursts of violent action, leading inexorably to a dramatic climax.
Publisher: Olive Turtle
Year: 2018
The Bag zooms in on one of the all too many poignant mini-dramas that are played out in the conflict zones of North-East India, where no one wins. Senior police inspector Lahiri, with his pastiche dispassion and pretend cynicism, the dreaded United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) Hiren Bora, and his 12-year old brother Okon, each of them a victim of their circumstances quite not to their own making, portrayed with startling realism. The novel probes the psyche of a morally righteous village youth with strong ideals and big dreams, compassionately delineates his transformation into a militant, and explores the complexities that exists between him and his adolescent younger brother.
The tale unfolds at a lethargic pace, though occasionally punctuated with short and furious bursts of violent action, leading inexorably to a dramatic climax.
Fiction
Non-Fiction
Based as they are on meticulous, investigative research and documentation of data, Arup Kumar Dutta’s astonishingly diverse array of non-fiction books for adults exhibit the true journalistic ethos. They also testify to his wide range of interests as also remarkable scholarship and erudition. Read More
Books for Young Adults
Arup Kumar Dutta has also achieved international repute with his books of fiction for young people and ranks among the biggest names in this field. First dubbed by The Illustrated Weekly of India as ‘India’s Own Blyton’, the sobriquet has stuck to his name despite the many rejoinders issued by him. A majority of his novels have individual backgrounds and individual depiction of characters and situations, and are not set within any tried and tested formula. Read More
