The Devil’s Road to Kathmandu reviewed by author Isobel Blackthorn

Fiction India Nepal Pakistan

Writer Isobel Blackthorn dropped a wonderful review of The Devil’s Road to Kathmandu.

The Devil’s Road to Kathmandu is as much an atmospheric and absorbing read as it is fast-paced entertainment. It’s 1975, and four young men in an old Bedford van pull up in the Hindu Kush on the Peshawar-Kabul road to follow through on a drug deal. They’re feckless, naive and stupidly trusting. Their first encounter with the earthy hardened meanness of a local dealer doesn’t deter them. What could go wrong? Everything. You’d be forgiven for thinking of Cheech and Chong when reading these parts of the narrative.Before long, The Devil’s Road to Kathmandu jumps to Nepal and the year 2000, when Dan’s son Robbie takes up the story for a while before it’s back to 1975 and the Bedford Bus. The juxtaposition of the two storylines provides interesting insights into twenty-five years of tourism-driven development, the types of people it attracts and the corruption that goes with it. Vater conjures a strong sense of place with his evocative descriptions that could only have been composed from intimate knowledge. Deliciously exotic, The Devil’s Road to Kathmandu offers a window on a region splayed to the tourist dollar.

Read Isobel Blackthorn’s full review of The Devil’s Road to Kathmandu here.

Buy The Devil’s Road to Kathmandu here.