July 26, 2011, is a date etched in Vishwas Patil's memory. That day, the Marathi writer received an email from a friend, Damodar. It was a letter from author Amitav Ghosh, who had read the translated manuscript of Patil's Sahitya Akademi Award-winning novel, Zadazadati, published in Marathi nearly 19 years earlier, and which Patil was hoping to publish in English. "Patil is truly to be commended for the unflinching realism of the plight of the 'damned'... it fully deserves a place beside other major contemporary works of ecologically conscious literature," Ghosh had written, recommending that the book, which weaved a tale about a rural community displaced due to a dam project, be sent to Mahasweta Devi. So impressed was Ghosh, that five years later, when he published The Great Derangement, a non-fiction addressing climate change, he made a mention of Patil's writings.

One of the most well-regarded contemporary Marathi authors, Patil, a former IAS officer who retired as vice-president, Maharashtra Aviation two years ago, has had one of the most prolific literary careers, with his works, not only voicing the distress of rural-folk, but also the histories of the nation at large. Last month, Eka, an imprint of Westland, announced that it would be publishing his major historical novels in English. While Mahanayak, his 1998 bestseller that has sold more than a lakh copies in Marathi, and has been translated into 14 Indian and foreign languages, released this month, Sambhaji and Panipat will be published later during the year and next.