Published by Quercus, 2013, 296 pages.

A maid with a cleft lip dreams about going to India, a daughter tries to understand her father’s problems, a young woman chooses the wrong husband, and a young man gets so worked up about relatives visiting his tiny house that he ends up upsetting everyone around him. These are some of the stories in this collection about Nepalis, either living in Nepal, neighbouring India or the US.

Through the stories, which centre around the lives of ordinary people, Prajwal Parajuly writes about larger issues such as class distinctions, the status of Nepalis in Bhutan (which I knew nothing about), and Gurkha soldiers in the British army.

In The Cleft, Parvati, a young widow, lives in Kathmandu with her maid, Kaali. Kaali has a cleft lip, and Parvati keeps promising to have it fixed, but keeps putting it off. Kaali was keen to go to school, but she does not have the money—or freedom—to do this for herself. And Parvati will not send her because she is lonely and is clinging on to Kaali as the only company she has. In the meantime, Kaali is dreaming of the promises made to her by someone (probably a man) to take her to India, have her lip fixed and make her an actress.

No Land is Her Land is about the fate of Nepalis who were born in Bhutan. Anamika, a Nepali from Bhutan, has been living in a refugee camp in Khudunabari in Nepal for the last 12 years. She has been forced to leave her country because of her husband, an organizer for the cause of ethnic Nepalis in Bhutan. The government had seen him as an enemy of the state: he wrote anti-monarchy pamphlets and insisted on wearing the Nepali national costume, although the government had mandated that only the Bhutanese national costume should be worn in offices. Anamika had to leave with her child and her father. But there might just be a chance for her to leave the camp and move to the US.

A Father’s Journey traces the ups and downs of the relationship of Prabin, a man living in Gangtok (in the Indian state of Sikkim) and his daughter Supriya. They are Brahmins and his wife Khusboo wants their daughter to marry one. She is delighted when Supriya announces she has met the perfect man, Sahil—and he is a Brahmin. But at a party a week before the wedding, it looks like Sahil isn’t so perfect after all.

The title story is seen from a child’s point of view. Her father, a Gurkha in the British army, frets not only about where he will be posted once the British have handed over Hong Kong to the Chinese, but the fact that his pension will be much lower than a British soldier’s.

Each of the stories in this collection is beautifully crafted, with characters that are nuanced. Their endings are often left unresolved: you do not know what Kaali decides to do, or whether Anamika is able to move to the West. That adds to their appeal because they leave something to the imagination.

The Gurkha’s Daughter is Parajuly’s debut book, and I believe he has written a novel, which I plan to read.

He is a writer worth looking out for.