Author: I Allan Sealy
Publisher: IndiaInk
Year: 1998
Language: English
Pages: 330
ISBN/UPC (if available): 8186939016
Description
The Everest Hotel is Sealy's third novel, and easily his most impressive work of fiction yet. All good stories , in essence, are simple stories. This novel is one such. And what turns a simple story into something more than just another story, is the means employed to tell it. And here, The Everest Hotel scores wonderfully.
Set against a backdrop of social and political unease and measured by the rhythmical changes of the seasons, The Everest Hotel is a rich evocative and compelling book with an extraordinary lyrical prose. The story of the book centers around a small town of Drummondganj in the Himalayas and Everest is a home for the unwanted run a small community of nuns. Life is nothing but a picture of contentment, till there are newcomers who disturb the equilibrium of life at the Everest. Thapa, the chowkidar, Inge, a German neo-Naazi, and Ritu, a young botanizing nun assigned to look after the owner are all powerful character, whose lives and milleus are sure to fascinate the readers.
The fact that Everest Hotel was nominated for the 1998 Booker Prize is a fit testimony to Sealy's ability to express himself. Reviewing this work, Khushwant Singh writes: Sealy is undoubtedly among the most gifted writers of Indo-Anglian fiction; he has the gift of words, and the gift of storytelling. Whatever he writes makes for compulsive writing.
This novel has been adjudged the best of English fiction writing in India during 1998 and awarded Crossword Prize.