Books for the week

Mayur Times

By Narayan Wagle

Price: Rs. 500 (Hardcover) Rs. 300 (Paperback)

Mayur Times by Narayan Wagle is the second book after ´Palpasa Café´, the bestseller of all time in Nepali literature.

The story revolves around the Political transitional phase of Nepal. Parag and Lisara are the two protagonists in the novel and the story moves through the tumultuous lives of these two bright young reporters. Parag and Lisara, are facing a tough time being based in the troubled Tarai.

Wagle in the story unravels Nepali journalists´ sufferings and power of resilience through these two protagonists. The book sums up five volatile years of Tarai post April 2006 uprising. The book is being published by Nepa~laya.

(Read THE WEEK review)

The Next Attack: the failure of the war on Terror and a Stratigy ofr Getting It Right,

By Daniel Banjamin and Steven Simon

Rs 560

The chilling first words, “We are losing,” capture the tone of this scathing evaluation of the Bush administration’s responses to the September 11 attacks. Benjamin, a Center for Strategic and International Studies senior fellow, and Simon, an instructor at Georgetown University, authors of the award-winning Age of Sacred Terror: Radical Islam’s War Against America, do not mince words; America’s foreign policy vis-a-vis the Muslim world is bankrupt and has “cleared the way for the next attack-and those that will come after.”

By invading Iraq, the authors argue, the U.S. demonstrated a profound misunderstanding of the scope of the threat posed by al Qaeda and other jihadist groups, and has turned Iraq into a “country-sized training ground” for terrorists. The authors also explore terror’s philosophical roots, analyzing how salafism, a strain of Islamic fundamentalism, dominates jihadist beliefs, as well as how the Internet helps facilitate global dissemination of its tenets, strategies and tactics. The authors’ remedies for this baleful state of affairs include fostering an understanding that independent cell-based terrorist units, not state sponsors, are the backbone of the movement; dispensing with reflexive use of military solutions; improving links with foreign intelligence and law enforcement agencies; and recognizing the limitations of democracy in solving developing nations’ problems. Not a book that’ll appeal to readers whose politics are right of center, it’s nevertheless a sobering analysis of compromised American security.

Royal Nepal: Through the Lens of Richard Gordon Matzene,

By Marcella Sirhandi

Rs 3600

In 1930, the celebrated American photographer Richard Gordon Matzene made a unique series of portraits of the ruling families of Nepal. Matzene s previous portraits of Indian royalty, admired by the Nepalese, facilitated an invitation from Nepal. Wary of British imperialist intent, which was frighteningly real in neighboring India, Nepal at that time maintained a closed-border policy. Matzene, upon reaching Kathmandu after an arduous journey over formidable terrain, was only the 27th foreigner to enter the country. The handsome aristocrats and sumptuously adorned women in his immaculate portraits are here identified and their biographies fitted into the panoply of Nepalese court drama and intrigue. Local and regional conquests, two world wars, a devastating earthquake, and the rampant malaria that challenged the regime are all part of this story.

A look into Matzene s life shows a mysterious, enigmatic character. With an alias or two, Matzene called himself a count yet never revealed his true nationality. Appreciative correspondence from Nepal, received in Ponca City, Oklahoma, Matzene s home from the late twenties to his death in 1950, attest to a lasting friendship won by his legendary panache and sophistication. His personal charm allowed him to negotiate Nepalese court etiquette and Hindu culture, to produce matchless photographs that conjure rich personal stories in a national ethos that now exists only in memory. ss a sobering analysis of compromised American security.

Available at:
Mandala Book Point, Kantipath.
Phone: 4227711