Since its publication in the late 1950s Mountains Painted with Turmeric hasstruck a chord in the hearts of hundreds of thousands of Nepali readers. Set inthe hi... » 

Since its publication in the late 1950s Mountains Painted with Turmeric hasstruck a chord in the hearts of hundreds of thousands of Nepali readers. Set inthe hills of far eastern Nepal the novel offers readers a window into thelives of the people by depicting in subtle detail the stark realities ofvillage life.Carefully translated from the original text Mountains Painted with Turmerictells the story of a peasant farmer named Dhan which means ironicallywealthy one who is struggling to provide for his wife and son and arrangethe marriage of his beautiful younger sister. Unable to keep up with thefinancial demands of the big men who control his village Dhan and hisfamily suffer one calamity after another and a series of quarrels with fellowvillagers forces them into exile.In haunting prose Lil Bahadur Chettri portrays the dukha or suffering andsorrow endured by ordinary peasants the exploitation of the poor by the richand powerful and the social conservatism that twists a community intopunishing a woman for being the victim of a crime. Chettri describes theimpoverishment dispossession and banishment of Dhans family to exposeprofound divisions between those who prosper and those who are slowly strippedof their meager possessions. Yet he also conveys the warmth and intimacy ofvillage society from which Dhan and his family are ultimately excluded. «