The Tutor of History - Softcover

Thapa, Manjushree

3.65

158 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0141007745 ISBN 13: 9780141007748

Publisher: Penguin, 2001

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The first major noel in English to emerge from Nepal, The Tutor of History is a portrait of a society in change that is ultimately a story of idealism, alienation and love. The events of the novel unfold against the backdrop of a campaign for parliamentary elections in the bustling roadside town of Khaireni Tar.

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Synopsis:

The Tutor of History is an ambitious social saga, a compelling tale of idealism, love and alienation, set in contemporary Nepal caught between tradition and modernity. The events of the novel unfold against the backdrop of a campaign for parliamentary elections in the bustling roadside town of Khaireni Tar. At its heart the book is about four main characters: Giridhar Adhikari, the chairman of the People's Party's district committee, who suffers from a serious alcohol addiction and strange, violent manias; Rishi Parajuli, a lonely, under-employed bachelor and disillusioned communist who gives private tuitions in history to disinterested middle-class boys; Om Gurung, a former British Gurkha determined to bring love into every life in his hometown; and Binita Dahal, a reclusive young widow who runs a small tea shop and is careful not to demand of life more than the meagre pleasures it brings her. As the election campaign reaches its peak, the crisis in each character's life mounts, and the eventual rigging of the elections becomes a metaphor for the flawed, imperfect choices that ordinary people must make to get by in a world beyond their control.

A first novel of great maturity and sophistication marking the arrival of a significant new voice from the Subcontinent. The first major novel in English to emerge from Nepal.

About the Author:

Manjushree Thapa is one of South Asias best-known writers. She has written one other novel Seasons of Flight Tilled Earth: a collection of short stories, and four books of non-fiction: The Lives We Have Lost: Essays and Opinions on Nepal, Forget Kathmandu: An Elegy for Democracy (shortlisted for the Lettre Ulysses Award), A Boy from Siklis: The Life and Times of Chandra Gurung and Mustang Bhot in Fragments. She has also compiled and translated The Country Is Yours, a collection of stories and poems by forty-nine Nepali writers. Manjushree Thapa divides her time between Kathmandu and Toronto.

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