Author: Samrat Upadhyay
Publisher: Rupa
Year: 2006
Language: English
Pages: 207
ISBN/UPC (if available): 8129109158
Description
With emotional precision and narrative subtlety, this volume features characters trying to reconcile their true desires with the forces at work in Nepali society. Against the backdrop of the violent Maoist insurgencies that have claimed thousands of lives, these characters struggle with their duties to their aging parents, an oppressive caste system, and the complexities of arranged marriage.
In the end, they manage to find peace and connection, often where they least expect it-with the people directly in front of them. These stories brilliantly examine not only Kathmandu during a time of political crisis and cultural transformation but also the effects of that city on the individual consciousness.
REVIEWS
Like William Trevor, Samrat Upadhyay compresses into a short story the breadth of vision and human consequence we expect of a novel, and he does so in a prose that seems as natural as breathing. It there were an author of the universe who bestowed on us the tender regard that Upadhyay bestows on his struggling people, we would be blessed indeed.
-Scott Tussell Sanders, author of A Private History of Awe
Elegant, rich, and pleasing, the stories of The Royal Ghosts will haunt readers long after the book is finished. These are tales of both the individual and the society, conveying a measured, transcendental gaze at the nature of the world.
-Diana Abu-Jaber, author of The Language of Baklava
Upadhyay is like a Buddhist Chekov … startlingly good.
-San Francisco Chronicle
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
SAMRAT UPADHYAY is the author of Arresting God in Kathmandu, which earned him a Whiting Award, and The Guru of Love, which was a New York times Notable book, a San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of the Year, and a finalist for the Kiriyama Prize. He lives in Bloomington, Indiana.
Contents
A Refugee
The Wedding Hero
The Third Stage
Supreme Pronouncements
The Weight of a Gun
Chintamani’s Women
Father, Daughter
A Servant in the City
The Royal Ghosts