Nepal has seen more change in the last fifteen years than most countries. Its two-hundred-andthirty- years old monarchy was dealt a grievous blow with a horrific multiple murder that remains unexplained to this day. Alongside it came a decadelong civil war spearheaded by the Maoists. 16,000 people died, over a thousand disappeared, tens of thousands were affected, the little infrastructure and state presence the country had was destroyed. Peace has come with uncertainty. Elections were held in 2008 with the Maoists coming to power in a coalition government. A year later the coalition crumbled, replaced with another one. Ethnic assertion is posing new and unpredictable challenges, impunity and corruption are rife and there are two standing armies in the country. What does the future hold? Combining reportage and political history, and superbly narrated, A Half Revolution is the definitive book on Nepal’s recent history.
Anagha Neelakantan is a freelance journalist who has written for Newsweek, Far Eastern Economic Review, Himal and Biblio among others. She was educated at Princeton University and has worked with the Nepal Mission of the UN and been an executive editor of The Nepali Times.  more >>