‘The Red Noose’, of the auto-fiction genre, portrays the corrupt and polluted bureaucratic system that mocks at our democracy. Most of the real-life characters who inspired the fictitious ones in this novel were, in truth, more irrational, more irksome and more self-centered than depicted herein. The whole system was thriving and gloating in the pain of the majority of its members. Truth was really stranger than even auto-fiction. The sensitive few, who fall victims to forces beyond their control, had no choice but to end up fatalists. The novelist, an unfit in the establishment, becomes overnight, a prey of the system. Surviving the keelhauling by the brutal government machinery, he strikes back by shouting out the truth. He exposes the ugly world of power mongers and the helplessness of innocent scapegoats. This novel is a revelation and a slap-in-the-face for the complacent citizen.

Jose Kumar is a renowned writer in Malayalam, winner of the State Award for his media review weekly column in ‘Cinema Mangalam’, the most popular film journal in Kerala. The column ‘Minivision’ attracts lakhs of readers for the last sixteen years. Besides the numerous write-ups and columns in leading Malayalam periodicals, he has seven collections of short stories and three novels to his credit. He is acclaimed for his sharp wit, singular style, and especially the freshness and daring in his themes and their treatment. He also wrote regular columns in Deepika and Keralakaumudi dailies. His column under the pseudonym ‘Vararuchi’ in ‘Deepika Sunday’, the oldest daily in Malayalam was the most sought after and eulogised by young and old alike. Jose Kumar is the secretary of ‘Narma Kairali’, the peerless organization of humour writers in Malayalam, which has been functioning for the last three decades to promote quality humour.