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If you don’t like the food there, you can always marvel the exquisite motorbikes Genesis Café displays inside its premises (Yes, INSIDE its prem­ises) or in the parking lot. But it’s a rare chance you won’t like the food there either, because the owners at Genesis, some of whom are experi­enced chefs with international exposure, make sure that the bites at are as tasty as the stunning bikes on display.

Although its location is a little obscure, (the first left turn from Pani Pokhari petrol pump if you’re coming from Maharajgunj), Genesis café has a regular group of patrons, mostly bikers and biking enthusiasts. The café opens for breakfast, lunch, dinner and quick in-between bites and is also popular for its “Cheap Friday” events—a one-night offering of exclusive imported drinks at below average prices.  

THE MENU

Chef’s Special: Nepali Thali By Genesis

                           Fresh Baked Chicken and Mushroom Pie,

                           Chilli Frittata (Italian Omelette)

Opening hours: 9 am-10 pm

Location : Panipokhari, Ktm

Cards: Accepted

Meal for 2: Rs 2,200  

FICTION/MURDER MYSTERY

All By Myself, Alone

Mary Higgins Clark

Published: 2017

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Language: English

Pages: 321, paperback

When you have read too many thrillers, you begin to understand how writers of the genre tend to think and, as a result, you can sort of figure out (with 100 percent accuracy, 99 per­cent of the times) who the killer is after reading about a 100 pages. And that sucks. That’s when you turn to Mary Higgins Clark. Reading her is perhaps that one percent of time you can’t make a correct guess. And that more than makes up for all the times you picked up a murder mys­tery and shoved it back in the book­shelf halfway through, disappointed by the writer and vowing to give up on the genre altogether. The thing with Mary Higgins Clark is that she tells you a story where every character comes to life. She’s not just trying to thrill you with moments and incidents, though there will be plenty of that too.

Take for instance ‘All By Myself, Alone’, where she brings back two of her characters Alvirah and Willy Meehan, last seen in 2016’s ‘As Time Goes By’. Here it almost feels like they continue where they left off as they celebrate their 45th wed­ding anniversary by taking a luxury cruise aboard the Queen Charlotte, which is making its maiden voyage from New York, USA, to Southamp­ton, England. In a myriad of char­acters and their own stories, Clark then injects theft and murder.

Lovers of Agatha Christie can rejoice because reading this latest installment by Clark will bring back fond memories of those days when reading Christie was an unmatched pleasure. The plot feels somewhat similar to Christie’s 1934 master­piece, ‘Murder on Orient Express’, featuring the Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot, which was recently adapted for the big screen as well. But the sense of familiarity is because of the fact that Christie’s novel took place on a train and Clark’s tale of suspense unfolds aboard a ship.

The language is simple and the chapters short. And though Clark simply lets the plot play out till the culprit makes a mistake and gets caught—unlike in her previous works where each suspect would be put under the spyglass, interrogated, and then carefully dismissed—the intrigue quotient is still high in All By Myself, Alone, and Clark, now 90, proves once again that she’s at the top of her game.

Places Restaurant & Bar at Saathghumti, Thamel is one of the very few dedicated vegetarian and vegan restaurants in Kathmandu. Menu consists of exquisite vegan and vegetarian dishes, from breakfasts to starters to main courses, all with a Mediterranean touch, making it a favorite dining spot for locals and tourists alike.

The restaurant, with a cozy ambience, with options for both floor and table seating, and for smoking and non-smoking sections, is also pop­ular for its tasteful musical events. To maintain quality, Places only features the best of jazz, blues, funk and reggae musicians on weekly basis. The restaurant also has regular events like quiz nights and movie screenings.

THE MENU

Chef’s Special:

Pumpkin Momo

Spinach Pie

Vegan Pancake with Fruit and Home Made Almond/ Coconut Butter

Opening hours: 9 am-11 pm

Cards: Not Accepted

Meal for 2: Rs 2,000

FICTION

In the Midst of Winter

Isabel Allende

Translated into English by Nick Caistor and Amanda Hopkinson

Published: October 2017

Publisher: Scribner, an imprint of Simon & Schuster UK Ltd

Pages: 342, paperback

In an interview, Isabel Allende said that she wrote ‘In the Midst of Winter’ in 2016 just when she was coming out of a divorce after 28 years of marriage and her agent, three close friends, and dog had all died. It was during these trying times that she came upon a quote by Albert Camus: “In the midst of winter, I finally found there was within me an invincible sum­mer. For the summer that we all have inside to manifest we need to open the heart and take risks.” And that’s what the book is about: Three traumatized people trapped in a snowstorm in Brooklyn, New York facing a life-and-death situation. By choosing to support one another and being kind, they ultimately dis­cover the invincible summers that lie within them. The book opens with a minor car collision, between 60-year old scholar Richard Bowmaster and Evelyn Ortega, an undocumented Guatemalan refugee. This incident sets into motion a chain of events which forces the two and 62-year-old Lucia Maraz, a visiting profes­sor at NYU, who is also Bowmas­ter’s coworker and tenant, to deal with a situation that, to begin with, is not their problem, and which seems to be spiraling out of control by the minute.

While ‘In the Midst of Winter’ mostly focuses on Richard, Lucia, and Evelyn’s seemingly ordinary lives, mystery and intrigue simul­taneously weave their way into the story, making what would otherwise have been a slow narrative into a gripping can’t-stop-till-I-know-what-happens-next read.

Lucia and Evelyn sometimes feel like extensions of Allende’s personal history as the author has said, time and again, that, for much of her life, she’s felt like a foreigner. And it seems here, through them, Allende is taking the liberty to make her readers understand what the immi­grant experience is like.

Though there can be no better time to tell immigrants’ stories, you sometimes wish the writing were a little less flowery, allowing you to focus on the character’s lives instead of getting stuck in the imageries it manages to conjure.

Also, ‘In the Midst of Winter’ feels a little awkward because something doesn’t seem right and the ending too is a bit off. But, all in all, Allende deserves to be read because her stories get you thinking about the many things you tend to take for granted in life.