Come join us for an evening in conversation with Samrat Upadhyay as he discusses his newest release, Darkmotherland!---ABOUT DARKMOTHERLAND---
“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.
----ABOUT THE AUTHOR------
Samrat Upadhyay was born and raised in Nepal. He is author of the novels The City Son, The Guru of Love (a New York Times Notable Book), and Buddha’s Orphans, as well as the story collections Mad Country, The Royal Ghosts, and Arresting God in Kathmandu. His work has received the Whiting Award and the Asian American Literary Award and been shortlisted for the PEN Open Book Award and the Aspen Words Literary Prize. He has written for The New York Times and has appeared on BBC Radio and National Public Radio. Upadhyay teaches in the creative writing program at Indiana University.
---PRAISE FOR DARKMOTHERLAND----
A New York Times Editors’ Choice
Lit Hub’s Most Anticipated Books of 2025
“Disturbing and wildly inventive . . . The canvas is large, the backdrop colorful, and the subplots proliferate like those in a Dickens novel. The language, meanwhile, is a playful, often alliterative mélange of English, Nepali and street slang reminiscent of Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children.”
—The New York Times Book Review
“In a vast dystopian reimagining of Nepal, Upadhyay braids narratives of resistance (political, personal) and identity (individual, societal) against a backdrop of natural disaster and state violence. The first book in nearly a decade from the Whiting Award–winning author of Arresting God in Kathmandu, this is Upadhyay’s most ambitious yet.”
—The Millions
“Darkmotherland is Samrat Upadhyay’s magnum opus, full of narrative energy and dramatic dynamics. With 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; hence the unavoidable violence of destruction. It is also a world that at times vibrates surreal resonances. A grand novel indeed.”
—Ha Jin, National Book Award–winning author of Waiting
“Darkmotherland is an epic with the power of the mythical, while at the same time grounded in our own savage contemporary moment. A stunning, utterly original achievement that lies somewhere in an uncharted realm between Rushdie, Doctor Zhivago, and Game of Thrones.”
—Dan Chaon, author of Sleepwalk
“Few writers can bring a place to life as vividly as Samrat Upadhyay does. His characters, from those grappling with love and loss to individuals caught in the currents of social change, resonate with a deep humanity that transcends borders.”
—Amitav Ghosh, author of Smoke and Ashes
“Darkmotherland is a brilliant novel arriving at exactly the right time. In these dark days of dystopian politics and growing facism, this book is necessary reading. With the breadth of Tolstoy, the khukuri-sharp satire of Orwell, and with beautifully lyrical prose full of compassion and wisdom, Samrat Upadhyay has written a contemporary masterpiece.”
—Alexander Weinstein, author of Universal Love
“Dizzyingly complex and dazzlingly written, full of rewards and arch humor for the patient reader.”
—Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review
Praise for Samrat Upadhyay
“There is a deceptive simplicity to all of these stories, just as there is a deceptive simplicity to Katmandu, whose appearance of traditional piety is . . . a mask behind which all manner of complications flourish . . . Upadhyay’s stories bring us into contact with a world that is somehow both very far away and very familiar.”
—New York Times
“Fearless . . . There’s an eerie element of black magic… that evokes the domestic horror novels of Shirley Jackson. This superb book stages an intensely powerful showdown.”
—The Wall Street Journal
“Upadhyay . . . illuminates the shadow corners of his characters’ psyches, as well as the complex social and political realities of life in Nepal, with equal grace.”
—Elle
“Upadhyay’s characters linger. They are captured with such concise, illuminating precision that one begins to feel that they might just be real.”
—The Christian Science Monitor
Event Venue
Morgenstern Books, 849 Auto Mall Rd,Bloomington, Indiana, United States
