''Arresting God in Kathmandu'' is the debut book by Nepali-American author

Samrat Upadhyay Samrat Upadhyay (, born 1964) is a Nepalese born American writer who writes in English. Upadhyay is a professor of creative writing and has previously served as the director of the Creative Writing Program at Indiana University Bloomington. He is ...

. Published in 2001, ''Arresting God in Kathmandu'' was awarded the

Whiting Writers' Award The Whiting Award is an American award presented annually to ten emerging writers in fiction, nonfiction, poetry and drama Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, ...

for fiction. The book marks the first time a Nepali writer writing in English has been published in the West.

Synopsis

It is a collection of nine short stories that provide a glimpse into everyday life in

Kathmandu Kathmandu () is the capital and largest city of Nepal, situated in the central part of the country within the Kathmandu Valley. As per the 2021 Nepal census, it has a population of 845,767 residing in 105,649 households, with approximately 4 mi ...

Nepal Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China Ch ...

. The stories included in the books are: # The Good Shopkeeper # The Cooking Poet # Deepak Misra's Secretary # The Limping Bride # During the Festival # The Room Next Door # The Man with Long Hair # This World # A Great Man's House

Reception

Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of ...

'' calls Upadhyay's writing "assured and simple", concluding that "Upadhyay anchors small yet potent epiphanies in a place called Kathmandu, and quietly calls it home." On the other hand, ''

Kirkus Reviews ''Kirkus Reviews'' is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus. The magazine's publisher, Kirkus Media, is headquartered in New York City. ''Kirkus Reviews'' confers the annual Kirkus Prize to authors of fiction, no ...

'' called the book a collection of "diverting if sometimes lukewarm tales."

References

2001 short story collections Kathmandu {{2000s-story-collection-stub English books by Nepalese writer Nepalese short story collections Nepalese literature in English