Mukarung releases his first novel, ‘Salah’

By A Staff Reporter

Kathmandu, Apr. 12: Shrawan Mukarung, a renowned poet and lyricist, has released his first novel, ‘Salah’.

On Saturday morning, Poet Mukarung held a launch event in Kathmandu to unveil his new novel. Known for his lyrics in popular songs and poems like "Timi Tare Bheer," "Suna Re Siyaram," and "Bise Nagarchi Ko Bayan," he shared that he spent a few years writing this book.

Gita Thapa, Mukarung's wife, Singer Kali Prasad Baskota, and popular Filmmaker Ram Babu Gurung, unveiled the new book by Mukarung at Nepalaya’s office on Saturday.

He added that he has been successful in sketching an emotional landscape in the book. Similarly, he said that he experimented with an innovative style of storytelling in the book.

“I was able to write a poem or song even though it was a small canvas. For the first year and a half, I nurtured the emotional landscape of locusts in my mind. The next three years were spent writing stories. I have tried to weave in some of the uses of fantasy, surrealism, and Kiranti civilisation, myth, and folklore. I have tried to write like a collage of connected consciousnesses in today’s postmodern times,” said Mukarung.

It is also said that the book is about the journey of a mountain girl. Mukarung has depicted the daily struggles, contradictions, and inconsistencies of a young woman’s life, most notably in the story of the main character Nayu and the characters connected to her. He said that he wanted to construct meaning by using the name ‘Locust’ as a metaphor.