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Darkmotherland

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0 of 1 copy available
“A Dickensian sweep and a vast cast of characters, Upadhyay created an ancient world saturated with the spirit of our time and shaped by political ambition and dark vision . . . A grand novel indeed.” —Ha Jin, National Book Award–winning author of Waiting
An epic tale of love and political violence set in earthquake-ravaged Darkmotherland, a dystopian reimagining of Nepal, from the Whiting Award–winning author of Arresting God in Kathmandu

In Darkmotherland, Nepali writer Samrat Upadhyay has created a novel of infinite embrace—filled with lovers and widows, dictators and dissidents, paupers, fundamentalists, and a genderqueer power player with her eyes on the throne—in an earthquake-ravaged dystopian reimagining of Nepal.
At its heart are two intertwining narratives: one of Kranti, a revolutionary’s daughter who marries into a plutocratic dynasty and becomes ensnared in the family’s politics. And then there is the tale of Darkmotherland’s new dictator and his mistress, Rozy, who undergoes radical body changes and grows into a figure of immense power.
Darkmotherland is a romp through the vast space of a globalized universe where personal ambitions are inextricably tied to political fortunes, where individual identities are shaped by family pressures and social reins, and where the East connects to and collides with the West in brilliant and unsettling ways.
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    • Library Journal

      August 1, 2024

      Whiting Award winner Upadhyay, whose last novel, The City Son, came out in 2014, returns with a work of epic length, set in a dystopian reimagined version of Nepal and featuring two intertwining storylines about politics, interpersonal relationships, and power. Prepub Alert.

      Copyright 2024 Library Journal

      Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

    • Kirkus

      Starred review from November 15, 2024
      A sprawling, sinuous novel of life and ideas in a funhouse-mirror South Asia. Darkmotherland is a Himalayan nation torn by class, age, religion, and politics. At the beginning of Upadhyay's story, a horrific earthquake has destroyed much of the country. The Big Two, as it's called, "made people go insane," he writes. "A well-respected spice merchant was seen around town drumming dhintang, dhintang, dhintang on his madal all day long, making everyone wish he'd died." Fortunately, in one of the winding storylines of the book, PM Papa, the autocratic ruler, is there to save the day--or so one political faction insists, even as during the newly declared state of emergency, "all political activities were immediately banned." In a palatial home called the Asylum--not for refugees, but for rich people's money--a second storyline emerges, with tenuous interactions between a monied young man and a family with a gently intellectual father and a mother so left-leaning that she's known as Madam Mao. Kranti, their daughter, marries into the Asylum, there to be bound up in intrigue. Meanwhile, while the street is abuzz with talk of a follow-up earthquake that "would decimate humanity as we know it," a concubine whose gender evolves with each passing day, to the horror of the nation's increasingly intransigent fundamentalists, gains ever greater political influence. In a novel that might be likened to Pynchon by way of Rushdie, demanding the reader's close attention, Upadhyay is clearly having a blast playing with names and cultural constructs: One of his players is named General Tso, two disaffected servants are called Cheech and Chong, Allen Ginsberg ("a famous Amrikan homo") and the Beatles make cameo appearances, and a Grateful Dead leather jacket becomes an object of memory and contemplation. Dizzyingly complex and dazzlingly written, full of rewards and arch humor for the patient reader.

      COPYRIGHT(2024) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

    • Publisher's Weekly

      November 11, 2024
      A web of intrigue fails to cohere in this clumsy doorstopper from Upadhyay (Mad Country). After two earthquakes devastate the fictional Himalayan nation of Darkmotherland, dictator Giridharilal Bhagirath Kumar becomes prime minister, earning the nickname PM Papa from his supporters and “the Hippo” from his detractors. Among the latter is a band of radicals led by former academic Shrestha, also known as Madam Mao, who plot Kumar’s defeat. His allies include the wealthy Ghimirey industrial family, whose dealings are sweetened by the despot, but a Ghimirey son, Bhaskar, follows Shrestha, and he and her daughter, Kranti, fall in love. The first half of the novel chronicles Bhaskar and Kranti’s courtship, engagement, and marriage against the backdrop of Kumar’s tightening rule and Shrestha’s revolutionary plotting. The second half tracks Kranti’s search for answers after Bhaskar is mysteriously murdered. All the while, Kumar’s male lover, Rozy, gender transitions and plots a dramatic coup of her own. Though admirable in its ambition, the novel fails to justify its length. Subplots are neglected for hundreds of pages, and frequent allusions to real-world figures—Taylor Swift, Madonna, and a “President Corn Hair” with a Twitter habit—undermine Upadhyay’s efforts at worldbuilding. Readers will have a tough time with this. Agent: Eric Simonoff, WME.

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