Dimensions
153 x 228 x 26mm
A Strange Tale of Royal Murder.
On 1 June 2001, the heir to the Nepalese throne, Crown Prince Dipendra, donned military fatigues, armed himself with four guns and walked in on a quiet family gathering. Without speaking, he mowed his family down before turning a pistol on himself. But Dipendra did not die, and while lying in a coma was declared king. He was now a living god.
Sharing the world's fascination with the crime and captivated by the kind of society that could create such a situation, award-winning writers Amy Willesee and Mark Whittaker set out to understand what happened on the kingdom's darkest night.
Exploring Kathmandu and other parts of the kingdom, they conducted exhaustive interviews with everyone from Maoist guerillas to members and friends of the royal family, gaining startling insights into the people involved in and the events behind the massacre. At the heart of the story is the strange love affair between Dipendra and beautiful aristocrat Devyani Rana - and the royal family's opposition to her that led to murder.
But 'Love & Death In Kathmandu' is also the chronicle of an enchanted realm where beauty and death exist side by side, and where the twenty-first century mingles uneasily with the fourteenth. Whether relating visits to prisons and palaces, or the crush of festival crowds and the smell in incense and smoke at funerals, the authors paint an unforgettable picture of the clash of old and new cultures that ended in royal bloodshed.
'Love & Death In Kathmandu' is both a stunningly evocative travel book and the riveting investigation of an incredible crime.
