Rao’s widely awaited magnum opus, The Chessmaster and His Moves, was finally released in June 1988. The story of its publication is, by no means, commonplace. The book is part of a trilogy that is more than 1500 pages long. Written, in most part, over three or four years, 1980–83, the manuscript had been ready at least five years before its actual publication. More than one major American publisher had shown interest in the manuscript, but considered the book too long. Viking suggested a reduction to a third of its present size of 735 pages. What was even more amazing is that the manuscript being shown around was merely the first part of a projected trilogy! Rao refused to omit a single page of his book.

Subsequently, Vision Books of Delhi, the pioneers of the paperback business in India, whose earlier imprints, Hind Pocket Books and Orient Paperbacks, had published nearly every major contemporary Indian author either in original English or in English translation, accepted the book as it was. The publisher took more than three years to finally release it. As it happened, when the proofs were ready, Rao became one of the contenders for the prestigious Neustadt International Prize for Literature awarded by the University of Oklahoma. The photocopies of the proofs, corrected by R. Parthasarathy, poet-professor and former flatmate of Rao, were circulated among members of the jury. Professor and poet Edwin Thumboo from the National University of Singapore, a member of the jury, played a key role in promoting and championing Rao’s cause. Rao went on to win the prestigious prize, which was awarded to him on 4 June 1988. Shortly thereafter, the book was formally released in India.

Chessmaster appeared twenty-eight years after Rao’s last major book, The Serpent and the Rope. Its appearance was certainly a major literary event in the world of Indian English literature. Much anticipation had been built up by the long years of silence, and the Neustadt award only added to the excitement of those waiting for the book’s release. To say the least, everybody expected something big—at last, the great Indian English novel!

On the morning of 8 July 2006, Rao passed away at the age of ninety-seven in Austin, Texas, far away from his beloved India. In an obituary that I wrote, I had said that he was truly one of the great writers of the twentieth century.3 His life not only spanned almost the entire century, but his works engaged with all its major events and intellectual cross-currents. More than 100 million people died unnatural deaths owing to man-made wars, conflicts, famines and ideological misadventures in this bloodiest of centuries. It would be no exaggeration to say that more than any other contemporary Indian writer, it was Rao who engaged most seriously with the problem of human suffering and its solution.