'A Dickensian sweep and a vast cast of characters, Upadhyay created an ancient world saturated with the spirit of our time and shaped by political ambition and dark vision . . . A grand novel indeed.' --Ha Jin, National Book Award-winning author of Waiting An epic tale of love and political violence set in earthquake-ravaged Darkmotherland, a dystopian reimagining of Nepal, from the Whiting Award-winning author of Arresting God in Kathmandu In Darkmotherland, Nepali writer Samrat Upadhyay has created a novel of infinite embrace--filled with lovers and widows, dictators and dissidents, paupers, fundamentalists, and a genderqueer power player with her eyes on the throne--in an earthquake-ravaged dystopian reimagining of Nepal. At its heart are two intertwining narratives: one of Kranti, a revolutionary's daughter who marries into a plutocratic dynasty and becomes ensnared in the family's politics. And then there is the tale of Darkmotherland's new dictator and his mistress, Rozy, who