The Royal Ghosts

Book excerpt: “Startlingly good” stories of Nepali society set against the backdrop of violent Maoist insurgencies (San Francisco Chronicle). From an author like “a Buddhist Chekhov,” The Royal Ghosts features characters trying to reconcile their true desires with the forces at work in Nepali society (San Francisco Chronicle). As political violence rages, these people struggle with their duties to their aging parents, an oppressive caste system, and the complexities of arranged marriage, striving to find peace and connection, and often discovering it in unexpected places. These stories, from the Whiting Award–winning author of Arresting God in Kathmandu and The Guru of Love, brilliantly examine not only Kathmandu during a time of upheaval, crisis, and cultural transformation but also the effects of the city on the individual consciousness. “Like William Trevor, Samrat Upadhyay compresses into a short story the breadth of vision and human consequence we expect from a novel, and he does so in a prose that seems as natural as breathing.” —Scott Russell Sanders, author of A Private History of Awe “Takes us straight into the heart of the troubled and enchanting kingdom of Nepal.” —The Washington Post “Upadhyay’s not-so-simple stories are lucid and often luminous.” —Publishers Weekly