Darkmotherland, Samrat Upadhyay
Darkmotherland, Samrat Upadhyay
List: $29.99 | Sale: $21.00
Club: $14.99

Darkmotherland

Author: Samrat Upadhyay

Narrator: Amrita Acharia

Unabridged: 23 hr 35 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 02/25/2025


Synopsis

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 Samrat Upadhyay

Samrat Upadhyay is the author of Arresting God in Kathmandu, a Whiting Award winner, and The Guru of Love, a New York Times Notable Book and a San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of the Year. He has written for the New York Times and has appeared on BBC Radio and National Public Radio. Samrat is the director of the creative writing program at Indiana University.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Zana on January 14, 2025

3.5 stars. This is such a strange novel that I'm not sure who I'd recommend it to. If you like weird SFF novels like The Saint of Bright Doors, The Library at Mount Char, and Metal from Heaven, then you might like this. If not, then I definitely wouldn't recommend bothering with this book at all. As......more

Goodreads review by Krystelle on January 09, 2025

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC! This was very much a complex read for me. I don't say that in terms of the density of the material or the language or approach used- more so from a contextual point of view. It is a behemoth of a novel, with a lot of thought and consideration cl......more

Goodreads review by Book_withquotes on January 04, 2025

First, thank you NetGalley and Soho Press for providing an arc of the book. This book will be released on January 7th, 2025 . Darkmotherland by Samrat Upadhyay is a complex and challenging novel set in a dystopian Nepal. The author skillfully blends political intrigue, social commentary, and personal......more

Goodreads review by Kcaroth1 on January 27, 2025

Darkmotherland by Samrat Upadhyay is a dystopian imagining of present-day Nepal following an enormous earthquake. This dense and complex novel follows the rise of the country’s nationalist leader, the daughter of his biggest detractor, his lover, and the wealthy industrialist family who supports him......more

Goodreads review by Ken on January 30, 2025

Love in the Time of Tyranny Several things happen at once and we care about all of them. A nation much like Nepal suffers a devastating earthquake, flooding the capital with rural refugees. The latest coup installs an over-the-top Trump-imitating dictator. Who brings his trans lover to the palace. Th......more