THE VANISHING ACT

In the title story, a young, out-of-work Nepali man meets a circus clown and a giant in a park in Santa Rosa, California, and in their strange predicaments finds unexpected resonances of the lives of fellow Nepali immigrants. 'Fortune' tells the story of an old man who watches his village transform into a teeming basti of migrants brought there to dam the Marshyangdi River, and finds himself thrown into a struggle against oblivion. In 'The Boy from Banauti', the river joins for one afternoon the