Description

A group of friends travel to the North of India to witness the last performance of an ancient Lyngngam funeral ceremony, only to arrive eleven days early. Stuck in the jungle of the West Khasi Hills, they pass the time by sharing stories around the fire. Inspired by Boccaccio’s Decameron and The Arabian Nights, this is intimate access to a whole world, spectacular in its documentation of a tribe’s life and culture, lush, warm, and entirely delightful in its telling.

‘A pathbreaking novel in both its writing and subject, and peppered with unexpected moments of humour, there is much wisdom to be gained from Funeral Nights.’ The Telegraph (India)

Publisher Review

‘A pathbreaking novel in both its writing and subject, and peppered with unexpected moments of humour, there is much wisdom to be gained from Funeral Nights.’ The Telegraph (India) ‘It was more like sitting down with old friends and listening to conversations. Amusing, enlightening, witty conversations that opened my eyes, made me think . . . Funeral Nights is the sort of book that should be made required reading. We need many more books like this, insightful and well-written, opening a window on the often-ignored corners of India.’ The Indian Express ‘Funeral Nights is a seminal work of great scholarship . . . It belongs on the bookshelves of students, journalists, filmmakers, travellers, artists, academics, and of Khasis and non-Khasis interested in culture. It’s an important book, an ethnographic achievement.’ Hindustan Times ‘Funeral Nights is, without doubt, the strangest book I have read in recent times. Its stories, long and short, fascinate me. Its rich variety fills me with awe.’ The Wire (India) ‘This easy read, laced with humour, will effortlessly acquaint you with the magical world of this lesser-known tribe.’ The Tribune (India) ‘Funeral Nights is an intense and acute study of Meghalaya’s socio-cultural mores, its rich natural environment at the mercy of plunderers, and the political twists and turns that have shaped its history.’ The Hindu ‘It is indeed a heady mix and through all of it emerges the life and character of a people caught in the tension between tradition and modernity, culture and change, the old religion and the hegemony of Christianity, ethnic survival and influx, militancy and the scammers of democracy.’ The Shillong Times ‘This 1,024-page novel is a marvel of a book, an extraordinary achievement in Indian fiction, an epic of the Khasi Hills in Meghalaya.’ The Bangalore Review ‘Funeral Nights is an epic journey in stories . . . Kynpham Sing Nongkynrih folds a vast history, mythology and ethnography into a giant patchwork narrative.’ Scroll.in ‘Very rarely do we come across a book that leaves us in awe, Funeral Nights will do that to you – it’s a book of epical proportions, taking you into the depths of a tribe’s cultural life.’ The Assam Tribune