Pather Panchali (novel)

Pather Panchali, translated as Song of the Little Road, is a Bengali novel by Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay, first serialized in a Calcutta periodical in 1928 and published as a book in 1929, marking his debut as a novelist. Written as a bildungsroman, tragedy and family drama, it follows the Roy family through their life in a poor rural Bengali village and their eventual move to Varanasi in search of better circumstances, tracing the hardships and small joys of the children Apu and Durga. It is counted among the finest works of Bengali fiction depicting village life, and its reputation grew further after Satyajit Ray adapted it into his celebrated 1955 debut film, the first part of the Apu Trilogy, which helped establish the novel as a classic of Indian literature.