The Country Is Yours Contemporary Nepali Literature

Modern Nepali literature started late, in the 1930s. As a response to state censorship, one group of high modernists sought to locate human freedom in the play of language. Another group wrote more directly in favor of social justice. From these pioneers emerged the ‘democrats’ and the ‘progressives’, the distinctions between which have gradually blurred since the re-establishment of democracy in 1990. The Country is yours is a collection of contemporary Nepali literature. Organized in four sections—‘The Perplexity of Living’, ‘The Right to Desire’, ‘The Imminent Liberation’ and ‘Vision’—the stories and poems of the forty-nine writers included here offer insights into the upheavals of Nepali society, politics and identity leading up to and after 1990. They also speak of the universal joys and sorrows of the human condition. Introduced and translated by Manjushree Thapa, this volume sensitively captures the spirit of a society at the threshold of utter transformation.