Mountains painted with turmeric /

Chettri, a descendant of Nepalese immigrants, wrote this novel of village life in Nepal in 1957. It's a simple yet thought-provoking tale of Dhane, a young peasant farmer who faces one setback after another as he struggles, Job-like, to provide for his wife, Maina; his young son; and his younger sister, Jhuma. Dhane's escalating debt leads to the loss of his oxen and his discovery of one of the paradoxes of human nature: his neighbors clearly feel sympathy for his plight, yet seem to enjoy the spectacle of his demise. He also realizes something about himself that he is too proud to plead for lenience from the village council in whose hands lies his fate. Chettri's gift is his ability to convey both the charm of this rural village, and the exploitation of its poorest inhabitants, driven by its conservative communal values. After Jhuma is raped by a soldier and blamed for the crime, the family is banished the combination of poverty and shame too great to overcome. A subtle, eye-opening look at Third World mores, and the winnowing of society's weakest links.--Donovan, Deborah Copyright 2007 Booklist

Nepali author Chettri's slender 1957 novel is a descriptive and evocative tale of a young Nepali peasant farmer's run of bad luck. Dhan "Dhane" Bahadur Basnet, 25, strives to support himself; his wife, Maina; a small son; and his teenage sister, Jhumavati, and buys a buffalo on interest from a moneylender to help plant his family plot. But the buffalo's calf dies, then the buffalo rampages a neighboring field, leaving Dhane responsible for damages. To pay off the debt, Dhane agrees to work another farmer's fields and offers his home and land as security. Meanwhile, Jhumavati is seduced by a soldier and gets pregnant; her shame is so overpowering that she imagines the only way out is suicide. Fate continues to mock this humble family when Dhane beats a buffalo to death for trampling his seedlings, and he and his family are cast out of the village. Chettri's novel is a moving example of social realism, and Hutt's elegant translation lends it a timeless fable-like tone with a gorgeous rendering of the natural scenery. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

This 1950s classic of Nepali literature, published in the United States for the first time, traces with great simplicity the life of a family in a traditional village. Dhan Basnet is a farmer with a wife and three-year-old son. His desire is a universal one: He only "wants to burst through the net of his money problems and bring his little family happiness and the cool shade of peace." But things in his life suddenly, heartbreakingly, start to go wrong. He "leases" a buffalo and is obligated to pay interest on it every month. While Dhan confidently "expected to profit from the buffalo in every way," the buffalo's calf is stillborn and Dhan quickly falls behind in his payments. He's then rescued by the well-to-do Nand, who lends him money to buy oxen and rents him land on which to plant his crops, but he makes Dhan put up his own house and land as collateral on this loan. More disaster strikes when Nand's spoiled son San diverts water from the fields Dhan hopes to plant and then in an act of petty revenge lets his water buffalo trample the seedlings. In a rage Dhan kills the water buffalo and is assessed a fine far beyond his capacity to pay. His life continues to spiral out of control when his young sister Jhuma innocently flirts with and is later raped by a soldier, an outsider to the community, bringing shame on the family. Dhan eventually undergoes a radical transformation--"having suffered so many blows of fate, he had become hard"--and by the end he and his family lose their house and land and are forced out of the village, not knowing where the next stage of their journey will take them. A moving novel of social realism. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.