The Guru of Love

Writing of Samrat Upadhyay's debut story collection, critics raved: “like a Buddhist Chekhov . . . speak[s] to common truths . . . startlingly good" (San Francisco Chronicle) and “subtle and spiritually complex" (New York Times). Upadhyay's first novel showcases his finest writing and his signature themes. The Guru of Love is a moving and important story — important for what it illuminates about the human need to love as well as lust, and for the light it shines on the political situation in Nepal and elsewhere.Ramchandra is a math teacher earning a low wage and living in a small apartment with his wife and two children. Moonlighting as a tutor, he engages in an illicit affair with one of his tutees, Malati, a beautiful, impoverished young woman who is also a new mother. She provides for him what his wife, who comes from a privileged background, does not: desire, mystery, and a simpler life. Complicating matters are various political concerns and a small city...