The Royal Ghosts

By Samrat Upadhyay,

Book cover of The Royal Ghosts: Stories

Book description

With emotional precision and narrative subtlety, The Royal Ghosts features characters trying to reconcile their true desires with the forces at work in Nepali society. Against the backdrop of the violent Maoist insurgencies that have claimed thousands of lives, these characters struggle with their duties to their aging parents, an…

When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep our lights on (or join the rebellion as a member).

Why read it?

1 author picked The Royal Ghosts as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Samrat Upadhyay’s English-language novels and short stories often read like anthropological work on Nepal’s middle class.
The Royal Ghosts fictionalizes the sluggish economy in and urban migration to contemporary Kathmandu, the decade-long civil war that ended along with the collapse of the Hindu monarchy in 2006, and the political tensions that defined Nepal in the first decade of the current millennium. His attention to the previous king’s grasp at power using political propaganda in the form of monumental billboards in 1990 (in “Supreme Pronouncements”) reflects my own interest in similar rhetoric fifteen years later.

I also like the use of…

From Michael's list on Kathmandu, Nepal.

If you love The Royal Ghosts...

Ad

Book cover of The Ballad of Falling Rock

The Ballad of Falling Rock by Jordan Dotson,

Truth told, folks still ask if Saul Crabtree sold his soul for the perfect voice. If he sold it to angels or devils. A Bristol newspaper once asked: “Are his love songs closer to heaven than dying?” Others wonder how he wrote a song so sad, everyone who heard it…

Want books like The Royal Ghosts?

Our community of 12,000+ authors has personally recommended 84 books like The Royal Ghosts.

Browse books like The Royal Ghosts

Book cover of Demoting Vishnu: Ritual, Politics, and the Unraveling of Nepal's Hindu Monarchy
Book cover of Reciting the Goddess: Narratives of Place and the Making of Hinduism in Nepal
Book cover of Far Out: Countercultural Seekers and the Tourist Encounter in Nepal

Share your top 3 reads of 2024!

And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.

1,889

readers submitted
so far, will you?

Ad

📚 If you like The Royal Ghosts, you might also like...

Book cover of Blood From a Rose

Blood From a Rose by Sharon Skinner,

Blood From a Rose is a collection of light horror and dark fantasy with a dollop of humor that takes the reader into the dark spaces between dusk and dawn, serving up dark fantasy, paranormal and supernatural short fiction. An exploration of our shadow sides, things that go slurp in…

Book cover of Love, Sex, and Other Calamities: 15 Stories and a Poem by Ralph Hickok

Love, Sex, and Other Calamities by Ralph Hickok,

From Kirkus Reviews: "This debut short-story collection paints the wistful life of a newspaper journalist as seen through his sexual and romantic encounters...

Throughout, Hickok writes in an assured style, pulling readers along. The narrow sexual focus results in a distorted picture, yet other aspects of Art's life emerge at…

5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in Nepal, Kathmandu, and San Francisco?

Nepal 34 books
Kathmandu 9 books
San Francisco 206 books