Satyajit Ray
Travails with the Alien (HarperCollins)
May 2018
Satyajit Ray was a master of science fiction writing who explored the genre through his creation, Professor Shonku. This book is a collection of such writings, including the script he wrote in the 1960s, based on a short story of his, for a science fiction film called The Alien. Egged on by Arthur C Clarke, who found the screenplay promising, Ray sent the script to a Hollywood agent, who represented Peter Sellers. Twenty years later, when Ray watched Steven Spielberg's films Close Encounters of the Third Kind and, later, E.T., he realised that they bore an uncanny resemblance to his script. A must-pick for Ray fans, this one.