C.P. Surendran holds an M.A. in English Literature from Delhi University and taught briefly at Calicut University before a long career in journalism, including a stint as editor-in-chief of DNA and contributions to the Times of India and international publications. He is also a published poet. His novel One Love and the Many Lives of Osip B., set partly in Thrissur, Kerala, follows a young man named after the Russian poet Osip Mandelstam and the many people whose lives intersect with his in a non-linear narrative.