Pather Panchali

Pather Panchali (Song of the Little Road) is one of the foundational works of modern Bengali literature, and one of the rare novels that gave its writer permanent place in world culture — though Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay would not live to see most of that recognition. First serialised in 1928, the novel follows the childhood of Apu, a Brahmin boy growing up in poverty in a village in rural Bengal, and his sister Durga.

What is striking about Pather Panchali is how little of it is plot. The book is built from small things: the sound of trains heard for the first time, mangoes stolen from a neighbour’s tree, a sudden rainstorm, the death of an elderly aunt. Bibhutibhushan was a careful observer of village life, and the novel reads almost like documentary — except that every page is shot through with Apu’s wonder at being alive.

Satyajit Ray adapted the novel as his first feature film in 1955, and the two works have been twinned in the public imagination ever since. But the novel deserves to be read on its own terms. It is a slow, patient book, and its tenderness for the world is unforgettable.