Manu
Bhattathiri was born in Kottarakkara, Kerala. He did
his schooling in Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Kashmir and Bangalore, and his
college in Kerala. Manu has worked as a journalist in the New Indian Express,
Bangalore, a copywriter in several advertising agencies including Ogilvy &
Mather, TBWA and RK Swamy, and as a college lecturer briefly in Sree
Vivekananda College, Kunnamkulam. He currently co-owns a small ad agency in
Bangalore by the name of Cheers Communications. Apart from numerous articles
and short stories in magazines and newspapers (which include The Caravan,
The Hindustan Times, Scroll, The Hindu’s BLink supplement, and Indian
Express), Manu has published two books. The first is a collection called Savithri’s Special Room and Other Stories,
out from HarperCollins in 2016. It was longlisted at the Tata Literature Live!
in 2016 and shortlisted at the 15th Raymond Crossword Book Award in 2017. Aleph
Book Company published his first novel The
Town That Laughed in August 2018.
Apart from widespread critical acclaim, the novel was listed by The
Hindu as one of the top 10 books (fiction) of 2018. Much awaited is
Manu’s latest, The Oracle of Karuthupuzha, a novel set in the fictional
small town of his creation, Karuthupuzha, that has repeatedly been compared to
RK Narayan’s Malgudi. The book should be out by April-May 2021. Manu lives in
Bangalore with his parents, wife, daughter and no less than three dogs.