Kathmandu, Aug. 8 -- Radha Paudel's Madan Puraskar-winning 'Attack on Khalanga' has been out for 13 years now. The English translation itself, 'Jumla: A Nurse's Story', is coming up on a decade of being on the shelves.

The book recounts Paudel's experiences leading up to, during and after the Maoist attack on Khalanga, Jumla's district headquarters. It is a record of the poverty- and misery-filled lives of the everyday people of Jumla. There are striking examples of this misery in the book. For example, in one part, Paudel offers a bar of soap to a lady washing herself by the river. The lady begins to bleed from her hands after she uses the soap, her skin not used to it.

The book is also about the Nepali Civil War. Paudel shares such ex...