Tilled Earth

'Thapa explores disparate lives in contemporary Nepal and weaves them into compact jewel-bright narratives.'-Time Out Comprising perfectly crafted micro stories and stories of conventional length Tilled Earth off ers glimpses into the private dramas of people caught midlife: an elderly woodworker loses his way in a modern Kathmandu neighbourhood; a homesick expatriate nurses a hangover; a clerk at the Ministry of Home Affairs learns to play Solitaire on the computer; a young woman goes to Seattle as a student and fi nds herself becoming an illegal alien; a retired secretary visits the Buddha's birthplace Lumbini only to find his deepest insecurities exposed.