Khasakkinte Itihasam ( or , generally referred to as Khasak in Malayalam literary circles) is the Malayalam debut novel by Indian writer O. V. Vijayan (1930–2005). It was first serialised in 1968 and published as a single edition in 1969. The novel has been translated from Malayalam into French by Dominique Vitalyos. The novel tells the story of a young university student, who leaves a promising future to take up a primary school teacher’s job in the remote village of Khasak. Little by little, the village reveals its secrets. The protagonist is soon bewitched by this ancient village where dreams and legends intermingle. He immerses himself in the "bewitching sensuousness" of the new "rustic, amoral world", only to emerge as an "involved outsider". He finds rational inquiry meaningless and begins a metaphorical journey inwards. The novel is often associated with the general disillusionment with the communist movement in Kerala in the 1960s. The novel is characterized by the matter-of-fact inclusion of mythical elements into seemingly realistic fiction (magic realism). The novel, published in 1969, after more than a decade of drafting and re-drafting, became an instant hit with young people in Kerala. The multi-faceted work is still one of the bestsellers in Malayalam. It has had over 50 reprints, making it one of the most widely read Malayalam novels. The novel was "translated" into English by Vijayan in 1994 (under the title The Legends of Khasak, Penguin Books), but this version differs substantially from the Malayalam original. Most Kerala readers prefer to read this as an independent novel rather than seeing it as a translation. The English version has also been translated into German by Ursula Gräfe. Background Khasakkinte Itihasam was inspired by the Ottupulackal family's stay at a village called Thasarak near Palakkad (in central Kerala) for a year. O. V. Vijayan's sister was appointed as the teacher of a single-teacher government school in the village (1956). Some of the characters in the novel were modeled after real-life characters whom Vijayan encountered in Thasarak. In an afterword to the English version of the novel Vijayan wrote: The njattupura where protagonist Ravi ran the school was modeled on a real-life njattupura. This njattupura was a 'temporary shelter' for O. V. Vijayan during the late 1950s and 1960s. Arabikkulam, a pond that finds mention in the novel, is also located in Thasarak. An O. V. Vijayan memorial is present at Thasrak