Reading Mo Yan in Nepali: A journey into China’s soul

The translated collection, split into two parts, includes seventeen short stories and two compelling novellas.

When ‘Mo Yan: Katha ra Upanyasika’, published by Nepalaya and translated by Sarbottam Shrestha, first came into my hands, I was expecting a glimpse into another literary world—not a dive into a surreal, brutal, yet strangely beautiful world that was both foreign and strangely familiar. The stories are strongly infused with a Chinese flavour and covered with hallucinatory realism, lore, satire, and everyday problems of ordinary people. They were not just stories but worlds to live in, demanding one’s total concentration and leaving one with long shadows much after the last page.