Chander Pahar - Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay

Chander Pahar opens with the following premise - Shankar Roy Chowdhury, 20, was slated to take up a job in a jute mill after graduating from college. However, his interest lay in exploration and adventure. When he got the opportunity to work as a clerk in the Ugandan Railways, he jumps at the prospect and leaves home. The story traces his journey through Pre World War I Africa, where he faced the perils of the man eating lion and the venomous Black Mamba. On his adventures through the continent, he meets Portuguese gold digger and adventurer, Diego Alvarez, who shares with him anecdotes from his expeditions with Jim Carter. He talks of the largest diamond mine that he found in Richtersveld, where his partner was killed by the mythical monster Bunyip. The rest of the story traces the adventures of Alvarez and Roy Choudhury as they set out to find the lost diamond mine of Richtersveld. The narration is simple and the plot offers edge-of-the-seat thrills. Chander Pahar is considered to be one of the most important adventure novels in Bengali. Despite its first publication in 1937, the book is still in circulation and has been translated to English titled Mountain Of The Moon. The illustration on the cover has been done by renowned filmmaker Satyajit Ray.