The Distaste of the Earth imaginatively weaves an ancient world of Khasi kings and queens, warriors and plunderers, and chronicles the sorrows of a young man caught up in that world. This layered fictional history of a land where a queen falls in love with a pauper, where animals recount their tales of woe against man, and where retribution—destructive to both good and bad—arrives, sooner or later, begins in a pata, the local bar, whose patrons form a microcosm of the world around them. Kynpham Sing Nongkynrih masterfully equips these endearing characters to explore, through the tragic life of the protagonist, the nature of human existence, raising questions about earthly powers, godly dispensation, and where our anthropocentric attitude is leading us. Through a universe of fierce warriors and ruthless wars, the novel grapples with themes such as greed and oppression, revenge and justice, love and the tragedy of love, strife and the peace that comes when one ‘unyokes’ oneself, ‘disconnected from the sources of wretchedness, a fluffy down in the wind of fortune’. The novel reimagines a world where man is a despot, where God is ostensibly absent, perhaps much like our own, outlining issues at once ancient and contemporary with startling clarity.