Mritunjay- the Story of the Karna

• Amazing book on the life of Karna, the famous warrior who participated in the great Mahabharata war. The story has an inimitable style. There are various characters involved with the life of Karna and the author had brought them to life by actually making them tell their story. And the continuity about the life story of Karna is not lost. This is the wonderful part of narrating a story where each important character speaks to you and expresses his or her story, their roles. The story has really done a justice to the characters and the role model that Karna played in the great epic. This style of presenting a story I believe was first introduced by V. S. Khandekar in his Award winning novel "Yayati" (which is another stupendous novel). And was adopted by Shivaji Sawant. The best part of the story is the years of research that went in developing this story from a 4 thousand year old epic. The book presents the story in its best possible authentic form. It is hard not to lose yourself in the world created by the author which though thousands of years old is made contemporary by the human feelings and thoughts that are timeless. The characters in the book have not been glorified as pious heroes and helps to make it easier to identify to real world then to some mystic story. The great story telling power of Shivaji Sawant and his thought provoking underliners about the duties of man are an eye opener. This was the first Marathi novel that I read and fell in love with it and with it the Marathi literature. Hats off to you Mr.