Funeral Nights [BOOK]

Description

About the Book

Funeral Nights is an extraordinary journey into the heart of Meghalaya, exploring the rich culture, myths, and traditions of the Khasi people. Following a group of friends from Shillong who travel to witness Ka Phor Sorat, a rare six-day-long funeral ceremony of the Lyngngams, the novel unfolds as they arrive early and spend eleven days in a remote village sharing stories, debating ideas, and discovering themselves. Inspired by the narrative frames of The Decameron and The Arabian Nights, this serio-comic work is not simply about death, but about life, culture, history, and human experiencecapturing a tribal world in all its depth and vitality.

Key Features

• Vast, multi-layered narrative blending stories of life, culture, myth, and legend.
• Offers rare insight into the rituals and social life of the Lyngngams, a Khasi sub-tribe.
• Inspired by classic storytelling traditions while maintaining a serio-comic tone.
• Explores themes of community, memory, tradition, love, folly, and human nature.
• Intimate portrayal of tribal psyche, bridging real and surreal experiences.
• Over 1000 pages of meticulously documented cultural and anthropological detail.

Product Details

Publisher: Context (9 August 2021)

Language: English

Format: Paperback, 1024 pages

ISBN-10: 9389648289 | ISBN-13: 978-9389648287

Item Weight: 650 g

Dimensions: 20.3 25.4 4.7 cm

About the Author

Kynpham Sing Nongkynrih, born and raised in Sohra, Meghalaya, is a poet, dramatist, and fiction writer in Khasi and English. His works include The Yearning of Seeds and Times Barter: Haiku and Senryu. He has published extensively in literary journals and anthologies, and has received multiple awards including the North-East Poetry Award, the Veer Shankar Shah-Raghunath Shah National Award for tribal literature, and a Tagore Fellowship. He currently teaches literature at North-Eastern Hill University, Shillong.