If it were a fiction, Nepal's saga would be labeled post-apocalyptic. The shiny, happy La La Land changed in 1996 when a violent "Maoist" insurgency swept the country. Nepal descended into deeper chaos when the heir apparent to the 240-year old Nepali crown gunned his family down - including the reigning king- trampling the world to write the nation off as yet another "failed state". In this book, Rajib Upadhya takes us on a roller-coaster ride, rich in insight and innuendo, meshing extraordinary personal and professional experiences with an elegant historical narrative. His book is as much a celebration of the Nepali spirit that has weathered more than its fair share of trauma, as it is a cautionary tale of broken promises and foregone opportunities; of a political class bedeviled by its own worst instincts; of duplicitous friendships; and of grim economic prospects pinned down in its potentials by collusion and graft.