Editeur - Casa editrice

Asia
Nepal
Nepal

Città - Town - Ville

Anno - Date de Parution

Pagine - Pages

Titolo originale

Lingua - language - langue

Love and matrimony are as complicated in modern Nepal as anywhere else, as depicted in this debut collection of stories from one of the first Nepali authors writing in English to be published in the West. In only one of the nine stories does the focus waver from the tensions inherent in a class-conscious society where most marriages are still arranged, despite the fast-forward of globalization and a younger population used to traveling abroad or at least hearing about it. Parents such as the mother in "The Room Next Door" are angry and confused when their children are reluctant to conform. This mother is shamed when her college-age daughter becomes pregnant; the girl then marries the only man who might have her an unemployed simpleton who has appeared on their doorstep. Young couples at a loss to articulate submerged desires find it difficult to communicate in times of stress. In "The Good Shopkeeper," an accountant who loses his job drifts away from his wife and into an affair with a servant girl; the dissolution of another man's marriage to an American woman gives way to an unusual rebound relationship in "Deepak Misra's Secretary." While all of the stories are set in Nepal, one, "This World," also dips into New Jersey and explores the ambivalence of a young woman deciding her future and, by extension, her identity. Those seeking the exoticism so often found in contemporary Indian fiction won't find it here there are no lush descriptions or forays into spirituality. In an assured and subtle manner, Upadhyay anchors small yet potent epiphanies in a place called Kathmandu, and quietly calls it home. -- Publishers Weekly (USA)

Dal 2004, approfittando del molto tempo a disposizione (una lunga convalescenza dopo un intervento perfettamente riuscito che mi permette di tornare a camminare in Himalaya), ho iniziato ad interessarmi alla letteratura nepalese contemporanea. La mia prima scelta è caduta su questo romanzo e su "Fever" di cui trovate la scheda a parte nella libreria.
Non è facile valutare questa e le altre opere dell'autore e degli altri autori (per altro tradotti.)

(aggiornata al 9 febbraio 2006)
Samrat Upadhyay is the first Nepali-born fiction writer writing in English to be published in the West. His first book, the short story collection ARRESTING GOD IN KATHMANDU (Houghton Mifflin, 2000; Houghton Mifflin Mariner Books paperback, 2001) has been translated into French and Greek and was the recipient of a Whiting Writers' Award, given annually by the Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation to emerging poets and fiction writers who display "exceptional talent and promise." ARRESTING GOD IN KATHMANDU was also a selection in the Fall 2001 Barnes & Noble Great Writers Program. Upadhyay's stories have been read live on National Public Radio and published widely as well as in SCRIBNER'S BEST OF THE WRITING WORKSHOPS, edited by Sherman Alexie, and BEST AMERICAN SHORT STORIES 1999, edited by Amy Tan.

Upadhyay's second book, the novel THE GURU OF LOVE, was published in January 2003 by Houghton Mifflin and given starred reviews in both Publishers Weekly and The Library Journal and named a New York Times Notable Book of the Year 2003 and a finalist for the 2004 Kiriyama Prize, which is awarded in "recognition of outstanding books that promote greater understanding of and cooperation among the peoples and nations of the Pacific Rim and South Asia." THE GURU OF LOVE was released in paperback by Mariner Books/Houghton Mifflin in 2004. Upadhyay has also co-edited the anthology SECRET PLACES: NEW WRITING FROM NEPAL (University of Hawai'i Press), published in Winter 2001 as a special issue of Manoa magazine.