Reviews of the latest books from and on Southasia

Seasons of Flight
by Manjushree Thapa
Penguin/Viking, 2010

When Thapa's The Tutor of History was published, in 2001, it was hailed as the first significant novel to be written by a Nepali author in English. It has been a long wait for the author's next novel, but Seasons of Flight has been well worth the wait. A nice change of pace, this slim novel does not deal with politics, except as background. Prema, a young Nepali woman from a remote village, wins a 'diversity visa' to the US and migrates to Los Angeles. Finding work as a home-care attendant for the elderly Esther, Prema gets involved in an intense, live-in relationship with the divorced Luis, the son of a Guatemalan immigrant father and a WASP mother. She finally breaks off the relationship for reasons she cannot explain clearly, just as she cannot fully understand why she left Nepal in the first place. Dealing sensitively with the dilemmas faced by immigrants who find themselves at home neither in their land of origin nor in their adopted country, Thapa avoids the temptation to make larger political or social statements about the two societies.

A simple tale simply told, Thapa's lucid prose describing Prema's confused thoughts and emotions rings true to life, and is the novel's most significant strength. The device used to bring the book to a conclusion – Prema finding a purpose to her life in her efforts to protect a rare type of butterfly – is unconvincing, but this is a minor blemish in a near-perfect performance. (Vidyadhar Gadgil)