The Guru of Love (2003)

''My personal problems are my country's problems. My history is this forsaken country's history.'' In Samrat Upadhyay's minimally embellished debut novel, The Guru of Love, the story of a married Nepali math tutor in love with his student, is poignantly linked to the unstable political climate of Nepal, a country torn between tradition and modernism. Touching on such themes as infidelity, class snobbery, teenage rebellion, and in-law warfare, ''Guru of Love'' may sound like a modern-day soap opera, but it reads like a graceful, page-turning mixture of stirring romance and social commentary.