Palpasa Café

by Narayan Wagle

Felicitated by Madan Purashkar in the year 2005, Palpasa Cafe, a novel by Narayan Wagle, is one stop for readers of all kinds and ages. The editor of Kantipur Daily, Wagle's novel is set during the 10-year-long Maoists insurgency in Nepal.

Opening on the nameless character referred only as 'I' is an artist and is on the verge of earning prominence with his undaunted skills in art. Few causal yet co-incidental meetings with Palpasa develops into strong feelings between the two. No, this isn't a romantic novel for the emotion is dealt with on a more platonic level here.

The story progresses ahead with unexpected twists and turns, and series of co-incidences. Though the scenes appear simple, they bear many marvel points that touch. The book has its share of message and visions for a youthful living along with the suffering we had to go through in the hands of the Maoist and the then government.

Genres: Fiction, Asia, Historical Fiction, Historical, Classics, Realistic Fiction, Art

240 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Nepali writer and journalist.

Reviews

[Gorab · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.25
Captivating prose, excellent conversations. A good blend of painting, rebellion, romance, and art in general.

[Shambhawi P. · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars

मैले यो किताब पहिलोपटक आज भन्दा पांच वर्ष अगाडी पढेको थिएँ। माओबादीको एक दशक लामो बिद्रोह सकिएर भर्खर सात दलको बीचमा शान्ति सम्झौता भएको थियो र सबैजना देशको भविष्य कता जान्छ भन्ने कुरामा चिन्तित देखिन्थे। त्यो समयमा यो किताब पढ्दा म निशब्द भएको थिएँ, मलाई यसको कथाबस्तुले त्यसरी छोएको थियो। द्वन्दको बीचमा फस्टाएको माया र बम र गोलिले छुट्याएको त्यो कथा पढ्दा केहि समय मेरो आखाबाट आँशु पनि झरेका थिए। अहिले मलाई यो कथाको विषयवस्तु पुरा याद छैन। मलाई सबै पात्रको नाम याद छैन। तर यो किताब पढ्दा मेरो मनमा कस्ता भावहरु आएका थिए मलाई याद छ। म त्यो समयको राजनीतिबारे बोल्दिन, त्यो द्वन्द र त्यसको समजमा परेको असरबारे बोल्दिन। मलाई सायद त्यसबारे केहि भन्ने अधिकार नि छैन होला, त्यतिबेला म धेरै की बुझ्दा नि बुझ्दिन थिएँ होला। तर मलाई के थाहा छ भने मजस्ता आफ्नो घरमा बसेर समाचार र रेडियो मा त्यो खबरहरु सुन्ने आम नेपालीहरुको मनमा यो किताबले आफ्नो छाप छोड्न सकेको छ र आज पांच वर्ष पछि पनि यो किताब बारे सोच्दा मलाई त्यहि पाँच वर्ष अघि पढ्दाको बम, बारुद र मृत्युको चित्र दिमागमा आइरहेको छ र सायद अर्को पाच वर्ष पछी पनि आउनेछ।

[Akaii · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't know why it took me so long to finally read this book. A wartime romance story woven with such grace and intricacy that couldn't be expressed in simple words. The characters were not only unique and refreshing but also they were so engaging. I loved the characters Drishya and Palpasa. Their story wasn't perfect but I loved it overall and especially the integration of war time struggles and this story is special in so many ways. Not only do we get a beautiful/tragic love story; but we also are giving a glimpse into the tragedy of war, and the devastation that it caused the people who lived through it. The author does a wonderful job of weaving history into this story, and it is so realistic that this was truly an emotional journey that I felt like I was living right alongside the characters.
I was a bit disappointed in the end, because many questions remained unanswered. I don't know if the author wanted readers to reach their own conclusion on fate of Drishya, or there's something more to it. However I really enjoyed their journey and this book also provided glimpse of many Nepalese facing issues at the time of civil war 10 years ago.

[Himanshu Karmacharya · Rating 3 out of 5]

द्वन्दकालको बेला घट्ने पल्पसा क्याफे प्रेम कथाको भेषमा रहेको एउटा एन्टी वार उपन्यास हो। स्वाय उपन्यास सन् २००५मा मदन पुरस्कारले पनि सम्मानित भएको छ । तर पनि नारायण वाग्लेद्वारा रचिएको यो कृति मैले निर्दोपिता भन्दा धेरै पर भएको अनुभब गरे ।

कथाको प्रारम्भिक अध्यायहरुमा मुख्य पात्र, दृश्य, र पल्पसाको बिच हुने सम्वाद सार्है असहज र दिक्क लाउने भन्दा बढी मैले पाएन । मा सधै पनि कुनै उपन्यास सुरु गरेपछि सक्कौनै पर्छ भन्ने धारणा राखेको मान्छेले पनि धन्न त्यागिसकेको थिए । तर अगाडीका केहि पीडादायी अध्यायपछि बल्ल कथाको रंग आउन थाल्यो र साथ साथै पढ्न पनि रमाइलो लाग्न थाल्यो। द्वन्दकालको समयमा बितेको घटनाहरु र सो घटनाले आम जनतामा परेको असरको विस्लेषण लेखकले एकदम वास्तविक शैलीमा गरेका छन् । संयोग भनेको एउटा महत्वपुर्ण विद्याविषयक यन्त्र हो तर सो यन्त्र कै
अत्यधिक प्रयोग गरेका कारण माथि उल्लेखित कथाको वास्तविकतामा पनि असर परेको देखिन्छ।

बेला बेलामा डगमगाएपनि कुल मिलाएर पल्पसा क्याफे एउटा कौतुहल जगाउने र सोच्न बाध्य बनाउने उपन्यास रहेको छ र त्यसैले सबैले एक पल्ट पढ्ने पर्ने भन्ने मेरो विचार रहेको छ।

[Petergiaquinta · Rating 1 out of 5]

In Palpasa Café, Narayan Wagle attempts to tell a story of love and war set against the backdrop of Nepal's Maoist insurgency, but he fails miserably to say anything remotely interesting or insightful about either of these two subjects, and although I went into this book really, really hoping to like it, by the time I had finished the final page I knew it would be impossible to give this novel even a two-star review.

Wagle's book is a big deal in Nepal, and I'd heard good things about it. It received Nepal's biggest literary award after it was published in 2005, but that was for Palpasa Café in Nepali, and I read Nepali far too slowly to be able to enjoy the book in its original form, so I can't say much about whether it deserves the critical recognition it received in Nepal.

But I don't care how bad his translator was (and according to his preface, Wagle had more than one person working with him on the translation), the original can't be much better than the English version I just finished based on its thin characters, laughable dialogue, and sentimental rendering of its discussion of the costs of love and war. These are not problems created by a weak translator.

Wagle's characters are unconvincing and awkwardly flat, especially Drishya, the book's first-person narrator, the most unwoke artist in literature to ever live through a revolution. Wagle fills his novel with stilted conversation between Drishya and various annoying friends, including the Palpasa of the title, the woman he falls in love with but to whom he can't seem to give voice to that love despite being such a brilliant painter and author of a book that many people seem to have read. These lengthy conversations go on for pages at a time and manage to be both strained and cliched, offering no insight into the characters. At other key points in the narrative Wagle switches to lengthy letters to advance his story, and these letters are equally as stilted and hokey as his dialogue. These conversations and letters are excruciating for the reader, and they fill way more pages than they should.

Wagle is a journalist with a lot of experience as a writer, and so he should be a much better at both dialogue and plot, but instead of crafting a convincing narrative several key events of the novel depend entirely on coincidence. ("We don't need to tie ourselves to any 'isms,'" insists our moronic narrator. "Our meeting's a pleasant coincidence, that's all." Responds Palpasa, "Maybe we could call ourselves coincidentalists?") And the insights drawn from Drishya's experiences with both love and war are so simple minded and two-dimensional, especially for a narrator whose name means "sight" or "vision," that I wanted to read the book as a savagely ironic indictment of the blind ignorance of the Kathmandu elite, but unfortunately there's little in the novel that invites the reader to do so.

Ultimately, with such simplistic writing and a superficial narrator, by its end the philosophical underpinnings of the novel fail to provide any insights at all into either love or war. It's as though the author has nothing to offer the reader about either topic, beyond briefly describing the oppressive toll this revolution takes on the people in the villages of western Nepal, the very people whose lives the insurgency began in hopes of improving.

The novel picks up briefly in the middle once Drishya leaves Kathmandu to visit his childhood village, and Wagle should have eliminated the awkward love story entirely and focused more on the political aspects of his story. However, Wagle stubbornly tries to write a love story that he is ill-equipped to handle. Near the end of the novel in the book's frame device where a journalist named "Narayan" (clever, eh?) talks about his relationship with Drishya, Narayan tells the artist, "How could I write about you without mentioning your love life?...Love's the spice of a novel." No, no it's not. Here in this book "love" is what turns a potentially insightful narrative about a significant time in recent Nepali history into a self-indulgent, awful bore of a novel. This, too, is surprising to me because with Wagle's significant experience with this period he should have been able to better illuminate not only the trauma caused by the insurgency but also the reasons for the People's War in Nepal's middle hills.

One of the greatest frustrations of Wagle's book is how utterly unsympathetic the main character is. Drishya is a painter who as a boy has left his village in the western hills to attend a good boarding school in the Kathmandu Valley and later stay on to live and paint in Kathmandu. The novel opens with the disengaged, aloof artist vacationing in Goa where he meets the alluring Palpasa. Her effect on him, in conjunction with his later experiences on the trek he takes back to his childhood village now in the middle of the Maoist uprising, creates in him a kind of awakening, although a relatively minor one. It's hard to believe that this supposedly thoughtful, supposedly aesthetically aware individual from the western hills never really gave much thought to the suffering in his country and, after witnessing it firsthand, continues to talk and act like a total ignoramus until the end of the book.

Wagle seems to have intended a more major sort of enlightenment for his main character after he heads for the hills (is it Lamjung? that's never made explicit in the novel). Drishya's journey is guided at first by his Maoist childhood friend Siddhartha (wait, are you beginning to see how corny this book really is ?), who Drishya ignorantly ends up getting killed. In the village of his childhood he seems to begin a journey along a path that might lead to enlightenment once he sees more clearly the suffering of life, especially at the village level. And ultimately, in one of the final stages of Drishya's journey he is helped by a boatman along the river. It's all quite heavy-handed and not very well done at all, especially his final meeting with Palpasa.

However, I could put up with all of that overdone symbolic sentimental nonsense if it was working toward a coherent end or it appeared that our young hero Drishya demonstrated a glimmer of awakening after his return. But his one insight into his experience is a sadly trivial one. After his experience in the village seeing the way the Maoist cadres are preying on the villagers as they seek to free them from oppression, Drishya comes back to Kathmandu to realize that he needs to take a third path between the oppression of the traditional feudal system and the violence of the Maoists, a realization that doesn't offer much vision at all, especially coming from an author who is a working journalist quite aware of the political realities of Nepali life:

"The stand I'd taken was that of people who resisted the warmongers on both sides. I belonged to this, third force. People who felt as I did could be targeted by either side because we opposed both. I'd protested against both warring sides in these paintings, my colours showing my support for the third camp. This was my strength. But would I be safe in choosing this path?"

That's your vision, Drishya? Yawn. That's your insight? To oppose both sides showing no understanding of what you have just witnessed? This new "insight" is no different from the lackadaisical way Drishya was living his life at the beginning of the novel. The only difference now is he's down two or three friends and had a bit of fresh air out in the countryside. Drishya's awakening is about as interesting or powerful as that of a sorority girl who once attended a Bernie rally.

So again, should I read this entire novel as intentionally ironic? Does Drishya and his lack of enlightenment embody that class of privileged Nepalese living in the Kathmandu Valley who fail to understand the social injustice at the core of their society, even when it destroys his childhood village, murders his friend in front of his eyes, and blows up his night bus on the way home? Possibly, but I sincerely doubt it. If any of this was truly meant to be ironic, the book would have an entirely different tone to it, especially the frame device where the journalist "Narayan" relates the story of Drishya's abduction and Palpasa's death to a friend of hers who has come to Nepal in search of her missing friend. Ultimately, we discover what a true asshole Drishya really is, failing to inform Palpasa's family and friends of her death on the night bus.

I'd like to read all that as ironic commentary, but I'm unable to see it that way, and perhaps this is because Wagle is a privileged elite himself who is unable to really convey the irony of the necessity of the violent revolution at the same time as condemning its violence, as he is unable to provide any sympathy in the reader for the asinine artist at the center of his book. Drishya's empowered response to the trauma he has witnessed in the country side? Well, he embarks feverishly on a new series of paintings, one of which depicts his "Palpasa Cafe" which he plans to build in his village as a tribute to this woman he was never very kind to. So essentially, all of his newfound understanding of the need for social justice in his country will be expressed through the construction of a high-end lodge with adjoining art gallery for foreign trekkers, one with excellent wifi and a coffee bar, and then name it for the woman who he claims has so profoundly impacted his view of life but whom he never treated very well while she was alive and didn't have the decency to tell her grandmother that she was dead.

Again, I'd be tempted to call all of that the most bitter of irony, but there is little to allow for this ironic reading of Drishya and his grand plans to memorialize Palpasa through good coffee and great wifi. If this novel is ironic, then it is masterfully disguised.

By the end of the book, it's almost a relief to the reader when Drishya is abducted by government security agents. Certainly he posed no real risk to the government of Nepal, but he deserved it for being such a jerk throughout the novel and failing to achieve any kind of real insight or vision worthy of his name.

Obviously, there are all kinds of problems with this book, but if I had to change just one thing, instead of "Drishya," I'd rename the main character "Jatha."

[A bookish Page · Rating 3 out of 5]

Palpasa Cafe by Narayan Wagle

What do I think of this book?
This book was definitely better than what I had expected. I have only had limited experience reading books written by Nepalese author, and I think I wasn't keeping my hopes high from the very start just to avoid disappointment.

One thing that stood out to me was reading about the decade long Maoist revolution in Nepal and how it impacted the people. The stories and the impact of the revolution felt realistic which made me think that perhaps the author had first-hand experience of this tragedy. I found this part of the book compelling and moving, as it felt like the author was my tour guide through a world that I did not understand.

I was less impressed with the romantic storyline in the book. I understand that the author was trying to enhance the emotional tragedy of the Maoist revolution in the mind of the reader, but I found the romance itself uninteresting and not compelling enough for it to have it's intended effect. The author's unrealistic approach to romance meant that the characters were unrelatable.

Other than the tragic romance part, I am happy with how the book ended. It definitely left me with questions and I am glad I get to decide where and how the story could have gone.

I would highly recommend everyone, especially Nepalese to give this book a go. You will be happy you gave this book a go, and it is certainly very educational, despite how satisfied you may or may not feel with every part of the book. This book definitely increased my appetite to read more about the Maoist revolution and how it impacted today's Nepal.

[Pavle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Palpasa kafe je ona posebna sorta romana koja odbija etiketu i laku kategorizaciju. Elem, ovaj nepalski megahit, što govori podjednako o divnim li ljudima Nepalcima kao što govori Koeljo i sve one gospodje koje pate od multiplih prezimena o nama, roman je koji na jedan atipičan način kombinuje ljubav, umetnost i rat(nu tragediju). Da ne budem sada preveliki autošovinista, kako smo mi nekulturni a Nepalci divni i bajni i čitaju bolje knjige - postoji dobar razlog zbog čega je ovo postao priličan kulturološki fenomen (i naknadno stvorio bar dva kafea istog imena u Katmanduu). To je relevantnost. Nepal je početkom dvadeset prvog veka pretrpeo velike promene, kao poslednja hinduistička monarhija započeo je tranziciju u republiku, pa je, logično jel, usledio i gradjanski rat obojen maoističkim bojama. Taj rat, gerilski vodjen, ostavio je dubok trag na običnog čoveka (kao što kod nas ostavljaju n-ti izbori u rekordno kratkom periodu; patnja je daleko manja, ali sentiment je isti, čovek gleda u pod dok hoda). Prostim rečnikom, ubio ga je u pojam. Kako umetnost preživljava u tim uslovima? Može li se ljubav roditi, ili samo umreti? Živo postaje neživo, tragedije postaju zajednička mesta. Ali, ispostavlja se, možda i ona mogu biti lepa. I na njima se može u miru ispijati kafa.

[Praj · Rating 3 out of 5]

"I wanted to understand how the quality and intensity of light could change a painting?"
Palpasa Café connotes an impeccable portrait overflowing with commemorative colours that transmutes chameleonic attributes.

Democracy subsists for the affluent and privileged .For others, it is an outlying hallucination; a hypothetical pedestal on which their country dwells upon. It is discomforting for me, to confess with sheer honesty for being just another quintessential hypocritical Indian. We belong to an assured breed who over endless servings of crème brûlée debates the prevalence of worldly pandemonium whilst willfully overlooking our own country’s tumult. Once in a while, amid the ritualistic swigs of espressos, an unexpected referring of a narrative like Palpasa Café freezes our rumination making us ponder about the unnamed lives that flicker and ebb into anonymity of political narcissism.

Nepal,to me is dewy splendor set in frosty Himalayas. Embellished with five seasons, it’s an utter portrayal of lush valleys and picturesque landscape. A neighboring country, Nepal not only shares ethnical and artistic similarities with India, but also docks a common thread of Maoist terrorism.

The Unified Communist Party of Nepal(Maoist(or UCPN(M),is a Nepalese political party which holds to the Maoist form of Communism. The Maoists announced a ‘People's War’ on February 13, 1996, under the slogan: "Let us march ahead on the path of struggle towards establishing the people's rule by wreaking the reactionary ruling system of state.: Maoists strongly believe in the philosophy of Mao Zedong who proclaimed, "Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun." Maoists also draw inspiration from the 'Revolutionary Internationalist Movement',Peru's left wing guerrilla movement—the Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path),and from radical communist parties in different parts of the world.

The Nepalese People’s War escalated after the 2001 Royal family massacre. Under-age recruitments and abductions of children and women were rampant raging a civil disobedience movement. Prevalent lives were expunged from acknowledgment to obscurity relenting to mere epigrammatic prints.

Wagle, a career journalist paints an image of a solitary artist-Drishya, a dreamer and absolute romantic. His rummaging for an arty inspiration embarks a flight of finding adoration in Palpasa- an enticing stranger he met on his travels and reunion through an old chum Siddhartha-an active guerrilla. Unknown opportunities impel him to dig up horrors of Maoist terror pockets witnessing discourteous etiquettes and naiveté of obtainable fatalities. The story line interlaces a delicate thread of a discontented love between the artist and Palpasa in the midst of the revulsion terror due to reconcilement of elapsed acquaintances. The psychosomatic booming of guerrillas is well presented from the subsequent explanatory verbatim:-

"How can you ever justify violence?" Drishya asks.
Siddhartha replies: "Without destroying you can’t build anew."
"But people are dying," Drishya pleads.
"The people don’t need peace, they need justice", says his Maoist friend,"If there is justice there will be peace."
"But you are carrying out injustices in the name of justice",says Drishya one last time but it is clear the two can’t even agree to disagree.


Drishya’s tale is neither a celebratory epic nor memorable. It is a dais of numerous omitted mortalities that we perceive through distorted vision and venetian blinders.

That said, translation of any maiden language is torturous. Chiefly, laudable literature as it mislays the authenticity of the writer’s thought processes and crafts murkiness. The narration falters significantly generating imbalance of lucidity. For example:- the assassination of Siddhartha by the armed forces or the coming back of Palpasa into Drishya’s life did not make sense at all. The character presentation is feeble and a few of the conversations do get corny at times. This is what I despise of translated fictions. Just when the plot gets interesting the jagged potholes spring up distorting the essence of it all.

As, my spoon knocks the empty dish, I call on the maître d' for an additional serving of Colombian espresso and crème brûlée. And our bourgeoisie conjectures continue….

[Kathleen · Rating 1 out of 5]

I greatly disliked this book. The Acknowledgements page makes it sound like so many people were involved in the English translation at so many steps, so I was really excited, but there were enough grammatical errors, misspellings, and dropped words throughout that I question the translation.

I found most of the dialogue to be painfully awful, I nearly gave up on the book after 3 Chapters. The dialogue between the protagonist and his love interest is particularly bad: idiotic, inane banter that nevertheless leaves the characters so impressed with their own wit.

What I did like about this novel was its exploration of the royal massacre and Maoist insurgency from a somewhat neutral standpoint. However, the protagonist isn't exactly neutral, he is pacifist, and the book doesn't explore far beyond his view that all violence is stupid (a lot of dwelling on how it is particularly unbecoming of women to be armed), and that he cannot take sides as an artist, because art is above politics, or whatever. I'm not quite clear on whether his position shifts slightly by the end.

What I disliked most about this book is the protagonist, though I think the reader is meant to sympathize with him. Aside from his self-satisfaction with his own brilliance mentioned above, he is an inexcusable creep.
**Spoilers**
In between the garbage dialogue with the love of his life, we find Drishya 1) soliciting sex from a teenager in an online chatroom 2) covertly watching a couple make out. Later on, he literally cannot help himself from asking a woman invasive questions about her love life, even as they are walking through the forest and trying to avoid detection by opposition forces. Ultimately his dire need to ask her if she is a virgin results in the woman being arrested and his friend being murdered. Don't worry, just minutes after he washes his friend's blood from his clothes, he absolves himself of all responsibility, and decides his friend died because he was "out of tune with the times."

[Arun Divakar · Rating 2 out of 5]

War destroys more than it can ever hope of resurrecting forms the exoskeleton on which this tale is built. Reporter Narayan Wagle paints a portrait of the lush vales of Nepal stained red by Maoist Insurgencies.

It is the story of an artist Drishya, a native of the hills who post an abduction by the Maoists begins to see life anew. The plot line begins life as a love story but then proceeds on a path of self discovery for the male protagonist. There is a treasure trove of opportunity here for a writer for like Kashmir, Nepal has a savagery to its beauty. However, while the author does show flashes of brilliance here and there, the overall work was not satisfactory for me. The central issue of state v/s the Maoists is seen through the eyes of a myriad of people : citizens,children,widows,orphans and so forth and the change in perspective is wonderfully captured here. Personally its my thought that the author should have spent more on underlying conflict between the two opposing forces but here the tale branches off into personal tragedy and brings the climax to a very dramatic one.

Translation & editing of this work leaves a lot to be desired. I am not the kind of a reader who would pick up a word and say Aaha you spelled that wrong ! but here the sentences themselves sometimes made no sense at all. It is rather unfair that such a piece of literature could go through translation that wasn't quite up to the mark.

[Fré Van Oers · Rating 1 out of 5]

Maybe the translation is just boggy (if I look a the errors in it, it's not hard imagine the style must have suffered a bit as well), or maybe it's just because it's a first attempt at writing novels, but I didn't really enjoy reading this book.

As I've mentioned before, I have the feeling Nepali novelists have a hard time choosing between writing a novel and expressing their feeling on the (political) evolutions in their country. As this one's written by a journalist I'd advise him to do a few more exercises in style before publishing another book.

Not only did I get the feeling the protagonist's point of view (continuously) shifted from the writer's point of view to that of the protagonist, but on top of that it seems like essential parts of the story are missing. I think the aspirations of the writer/the book are to high: it wants to be a love story, a political novel, a thriller, a biographical novel and because of this lack of definition it fails at all his goals. (I'm not saying you can't combine all these in one book, I'm just saying it takes a hell of a lot of skill to write such a book)

[परीक्षित - Parik]

Philosophical astuteness and artistic sprinkles~
The richness of Nepali language is somewhat lost in the English translation.

[William · Rating 2 out of 5]

not a great book - the dialogue is barely above Harlequin romance. It is an anti-war novel in the guise of a love story about a Nepali artist and a Nepali expatriot returned to Nepal to report on the uprising. They both become victims of the violence. I enjoyed it having been to Nepal because it was evocative. It was a bit interesting as well because the author is a character in his own book. Still, if you haven't been to Nepal, give it a pass.

[Pedro · Rating 4 out of 5]

3,5

Narayán, es un periodista de Katmandú que se ha tomado un tiempo libre en su empleo para terminar de escribir una novela basada en su amigo Drishya, artista y pintor; y es el encargado de abrir y cerrar la novela. El relato central está en manos de Drishya, que en el tiempo de los hechos narrados (cerca de 2001) gira en torno a su conocimiento de la bella Palpasa, y su viaje a las montañas donde pasó su infancia, cercanos al pie del Monte Everest.

Enamoradizo de una manera infantil, entra en un juego de seducción mutua con la joven Palpasa, por quien llega a sentir una pasión cercana a la idealización, aunque sin muchas consecuencias prácticas.

En las montañas, se reencontrará con la nostalgia y toda la belleza de la naturaleza, que lo envolverá en una sensación casi mística, en sueños que incluirán a la misma Palpasa; hasta que comienza a descubrir el significado de la dura realidad y terror con que viven los habitantes, amenazados tanto por la insurgencia maoísta como las acciones represivas del gobierno.

El personaje central está muy bien presentado, las acciones presentan con realismo su periplo en la montaña, y los diálogos son muy buenos, en especial los que sostiene con Palpasa, un coqueteo entre dos que quieren pero temen acercarse demasiado o comprometerse.

Un buen libro, que tiene una muy buena historia, que no llega a lucir adecuadamente por algunas falencias en la construcción.

[Sammy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love books for their ability to make me care about things I didn't care about before. Books can invoke feelings of love, care, sorrow, anger and all sorts of things. This book is dripping with love. The pages ooze love and affection, for people, art, the country and all sorts of things.

I uploaded a dramatic reading of a letter from this book to youtube here. I really enjoyed this book because it is anti-war, and it is so anti-war in every page. Instead it is pro-peace and pro-love to an extreme. I agree with the narrative that war is hell and warmongorers propagate it to profit. Anyone who has been alive these past few years and paying attention can understand that about the world now.

Yet, much like the people in the book, people in our world somehow are so easily manipulated and convinced by politicians and army generals and corporations that the other over there is the enemy. How is this? What goes through the mind of such a person? How you can not relate to the universal condition of all beings and their suffering? How cut off do you have to be from empathy that you are willing to use violence to get what you want? I'd rather die than be violent, to be honest.

Maybe that's a naive way of looking at the world... maybe I too should take sides and engage in anger and fighting, to help feed the system with its required quota of hate. But I don't think I can, I am not capable. Maybe I can be indoctrinated into it, maybe its already happened and I just don't know it yet. Who knows? All I know is I think a lot of people are really stupid, and they are easily manipulatable, by the TV, ads, the internet, or whatever. That influence makes them behave in strange ways and say weird things and be unkind. If this book is about anything, it's about kindness. That I like and get behind, pretty much everything else is contemptible in some way or the other.

[Girish · Rating 3 out of 5]

“The gap between the way we think is so wide that it doesn't matter which language we use. We can never communicate.”

I have read quite a few books as dialogues and conversation on war and art by authors like Ali Smith, Kurt Vonnegut and Joseph Heller. What makes this book different is the almost tangential way of story telling with Asian sensibilities. Since the protagonist is an artist, every chapter appears like a making of a melancholic tragic painting which it eventually becomes.

I very vaguely remember the news of the murder of the Nepalese royal family and the guerrila war and so the book was in an unknown historical context. The book is told from the POV of a presumptuous artist who is now picked up by the special agents. The character flatters, deeply sensitive and yet utterly selfish, flirts unabashedly and a man who through art tries to remain apolitical. But there is no way one can be apolitical in a charged environment.

He meets Palpasa who is a free spirit who intrigues him and deflects his advances. Whenever they meet, there is a sense of excitement and spunk in the conversation, which is at first endearing, but then becomes repetitive. I loved the interaction with Palpasa's grandmother, Hajir Amma, where he makes her dance by being persuasive. In equal parts distressing are the various people he encounters who are collateral damages in the war, which was not their doing. Through Siddhartha, he narrates the sides of the guerillas.

His painting of Palpasa cafe becomes an escape that doesn't belong in the current context. I thought, at the end of the book, i would meditate about the anti-war stances - but by making a selfish protagonist, a mercurial Palpasa and fatalistic people who are drawn into the war (a bit unfair I guess), I was unmoved by the story. People on either side who feel strongly about the philosophy are not going to be swayed by the book.

Good writing without a clear audience.

[Indiabookstore · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've read books of all kinds. Romantic novels. Books on war. Thrillers. I've read books where the protagonist was a singer or a soldier or a woman in a war-torn country. However, until I picked up Narayan Wagle's Palpasa Cafe, I had never read a romantic book set during the Civil War in Nepal, from the perspective of a painter.

The book starts on a metafictional note. The narrator of the novel, is a journalist, who is writing a book about Drishya, a painter. While he is waiting for Drishya, he learns that Drishya has been abducted by a group of Maoists. Chapter One begins with Drishya meeting Palpasa, an American-Nepali harboring a dream of making a documentary, in Goa. Sparks exchange but nothing fruitions. They both leave without exchanging contact numbers. As the story progresses, we find that Drishya is now accompanying his Maoist friend, Siddhartha, to various parts of Kathmandu. It is only during his travels that he learns of the hardship of the Nepalis and the pathetic conditions in Nepal....

For the full review, visit IndiaBookStore.

[Nayan Pokhrel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think Kunda Dixit nailed it with his widely published review:

..Wagle’s Nepali is simple, colloquial and his voice is genuine and sincere. Drishya comes across sometimes as being unnecessarily abrasive, but Palpasa is an authentic diaspora daughter caught between love for her motherland and alienation from her adopted home...Narayan Wagle’s book can be called an anti-war novel. It drags us to the edge and forces us to peer down at the abyss below.."

For the good value of the novel, it is extremely unfair even to look for the weaknesses in the novel. Narayan Wagle is one of the very few journalists you could enjoy a beer with in Nepal.

[Rishi Prakash · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was another discovery and buy in one of the Book Fair. A real old and well read book reflecting clearly from the appearance when i picked it up :-)!! I got attracted by "Nepal setup" as i have never read anything there.

This a romantic book set during the Civil War in Nepal, from the perspective of a painter so clearly a very creative way of putting the thoughts of someone in real pain by the circumstances in his country... Palpasa Cafe is weaved beautifully through the length and width of the picturesque country in the backdrop of Nepalese Civil War that lasted for 10 years starting from the year 1996 to 2006- an armed battle between Nepali armed forces and Maoist forces with an aim of overthrowing the monarchial rule. A real touching tribute to the lives of many many individuals there... the ending makes me sad but i really hope things have improved in all these years and happiness has overtaken gloom which is in the air here...

[Umesh Timalsina · Rating 5 out of 5]

सुत्रात्मक लेखन शैली को शशक्त पुस्तक समग्र कुरा समेटिएको ..
मलाइ घत परेका र कौतुहलता भएको क्षण
"रङ्ग्को भाषा सर्बब्यापी हुन्छ तर तिमिले नेपालिपना कसरी प्रकट गर्छ्यौ?"

[Behnaz · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this book has three main parts: the civil war, Drishya's inner world as an artist and his love story.

The author pictures the problems at the country side during the civil war impressively. The characters that Drishya meets on the trail stick to mind and I'm sure I won't forget them.

The painting descriptions, color theories and the artist's emotions and feelings are fabulous. Drishya's personality is attractive and I wanted to know more about his thoughts and perspectives.

Unlike the other parts, the love story was not nicely pictured. To me, the relationship between Palpasa and Drishya was immature, the letters passed between them did not make sense. In general, I was not touched by this part and didn't really get affected when Palpasa died. The author could improve the book if he could work more on Palpasa's character.

[Erika · Rating 5 out of 5]

i really loved this book!! at first i wasn't sure but by the end of this book i found myself hanging to each and every word of it. the main thing that i liked about this book is that it shows the life of the people from the aftermath of the war..their feelings their fears and all the things that they have to deal with. it shows that side of the story that i may not have known if not reading this book.

[Prepsa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sort of love/hate the character. Hate the way the guy treats girls, mainly Palpasa. Love the way he views his work and hometown. I was small when the events described in the book happened so I only had a vague idea of what happened but this book gave me a glimpse of how the situation was back then. I'm also extremely aware of how fragile human life is.

[K · Rating 3 out of 5]

"If Buddha was born during present times, he would be carrying gun"

Decadence of religion, revolution and romance in this commentary Nepalese literature.
I read this in English translation at first, big mistake btw, would not recommend. This was my first novel that was written in Nepali, was surprised how convenient is it to read.
Initially picked it up as I thought it was romance set in the early 2000s of Nepali civil war however its much more than that
It goes an excellent job in providing a commentary of suffering of people who lived during the chaos of civil war at that time period.

Altho set during that particular time period, however much of the theme is still predominant.

[Renee Lyons · Rating 5 out of 5]

4 stars for the story, bumped to 5 because of the importance of the novel. I found the format of the novel quite unique, and the writing and plot varied between interesting, plodding, and harrowing - as life during wartimes often is. For this reason, and because it's one of a very limited selection of Nepali writing that has been translated to other languages, I give it 5 stars.

[Zahra · Rating 3 out of 5]

" Were the Buddha to be born today, even he'd raise a gun"

"I'm beginning to believe there are more temples here than houses and more Gods than people"

My favorite quotes from this book! Wish I could've heard the nepali audiobook rather than the english translated book but thik chha ke garne. First book i've read about the maoist conflict and it didnt disappoint. Hope to read more !

[celia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Palpasa cafe is a book written by Narayan Wagle and it's about a girl named Drishya and Palpasa. Drishya comes home (Nepal) after 9/11. Things get very interesting when she comes home to her parents. She wants to change her life in a good way but a lot of twists comes through her journey. This book is more about serious things instead of romance or comedy but there is some romance.

I would recommend this book to people who are interested about history or serious events. This book took me a long time for some reason. This book is great if you want to learn about some people’s lives after a war. This book may make readers cry.

[Lily Chadwick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really simply and effectively describes finding yourself grappling with living in a war zone. The main character who was (at least I thought) a bit unlikable at first grows so much and his story was so engaging but I did sob in public at the end

[Anshuman Karki · Rating 4 out of 5]

The various facets of Maoist insurgency period is beautifully crafted dappled with an engaging love story. Each and every story presented is captivating and the climax is brilliant.

[Gô Wîn]

Outstanding