The Handsome Monk and Other Stories

Translated by Christopher Peacock, the stories in The Handsome Monk depict the lives of Tibetans under two supervising authorities: the Communist Party, which dictates their day-to-day subsistence, and the Buddhist deities who control their fortunes in the afterlife. Traditional nomadism has given way to a more precarious form of drifting. -- Sam Sacks * Wall Street Journal *
Tsering Döndrup is a major writer for our times, and anyone who cares about Tibet or storytelling should embrace this collection wholeheartedly. * Asian Review of Books *
The Handsome Monk does give a good sense of especially rural contemporary Tibetan life, and some fascinating glimpses of still fundamental aspects of it. -- M. A. Orthofer * The Complete Review *
The Handsome Monk is an excellent collection, with the mix of short pieces and longer, more involved stories working well. * Tony's Reading List *
Positioned along the knife edge of Tibet and China, secularity and religion, modernity and tradition, Tsering Döndrup's exuberantly irreverent stories (expertly translated from the Tibetan by Christopher Peacock) will strike many English-language readers as both uncannily familiar and deliciously odd. -- Carlos Rojas, translator of the Man Booker International Prize-shortlisted novel The Four Books by Yan Lianke
This volume makes accessible some of the new and exciting work in Tibetan literature from inside China. It will be of interest both to general readers and to scholars of Tibetan and Chinese literature. -- Janet Gyatso, Harvard University
Tsering Döndrup’s characters are steeped in the anxieties of modernity as they negotiate worlds secular and religious, hyper-real and fantastic. These short stories reflect sharp and highly critical Tibetan perspectives on the nature of life, love, family, truth, and self-identity. This collection is nothing short of a masterpiece. -- Jann Ronis, University of California, Berkeley