The End of the World: Himalmag Review

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The End of the World
by Sushma Joshi
FinePrint Books, 2008

This compilation of short stories, Sushma Joshi’s first book, is firmly rooted in the Nepali experience, especially of the past decade. Themes of loss, distrust, the state’s betrayal of its people, and out-migration in search of opportunity – all are realties in the country’s recent past, and these colour most of the narratives.

Yearning – whether a grown man’s lifelong craving for cheese; a young police cadet’s hunger for the neighbour’s vegetable patch (and daughter); or a dejected villager’s longing for the ancestral land with which he was forced to part – is also central to these stories. Joshi does well in giving voice to these desires, drawing the reader in with poignant and humorous portrayals of the characters’ quests for fulfilment... (Surabhi Pudasaini)

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