Bloomsbury India announced the publication of Telling Me My Stories, a deeply moving memoir by Kunzang Choden—Bhutan’s first woman to write fiction in English and one of the country’s most respected literary voices.

With quiet grace and cultural richness, Telling Me My Stories traces Kunzang’s journey from a remote Bhutanese village to boarding school in India, and finally back to her ancestral home, now a museum preserving her family’s legacy. Through intimate recollections and reflective musings, she offers a rare window into a Bhutan few have seen—a world on the cusp of modernity, told by a woman who has lived through it.

Born into a privileged landed household, Kunzang lost her parents young and was sent away to school at the age of nine. Speaking only Bhumtangkha, she found solace in whispering stories to herself each night—seeds that would later blossom into the voice of a writer. Her memoir captures not just personal loss and transformation, but also the broader shifts Bhutan experienced in the 20th century as it embraced modernisation.

Telling Me My Stories is more than a memoir. It’s a cultural document, an ode to memory, and a loving portrait of a family navigating change. With warmth and insight, Choden preserves disappearing social structures, oral traditions, and everyday life in Bhutan—at a time when readers around the world are hungering for introspective, rooted narratives.

About the Author

Kunzang Choden is the author of the critically acclaimed novel The Circle of Karma, and the first Bhutanese woman to be published in English. A collector of Bhutanese folktales, she has written novels, children’s books, and nonfiction exploring Bhutanese food, culture, and heritage. Her work has been translated into several languages including French, Japanese, Dutch, and Hindi. She is the recipient of the SAARC Literature Award 2023, and continues to be a powerful voice preserving and chronicling the lived realities of a rapidly changing Bhutan.