Kathmandu, Nov. 10 -- Growing up as a young boy who wanted to write fiction in English, there were two 'senior' writers that we were supposed to read: Samrat Upadhyay and Manjushree Thapa. I read Upadhyay's Arresting God in Kathmandu and marvelled at its craft, but it was really Thapa's Forget Kathmandu that left me wondering how it was possible to write with such insight and introspection, and in beautiful prose, about messy and confusing times.

So when I ran into her last Saturday at an event by BojuBajai, I knew I would have to sit down with her. So I asked, and she chose Bhumi in Lazimpat, because, she said, she's been trying to eat everything that she can't get back home in Canada.

Thapa famously-or infamously-became a Canadian cit...