The Babu grows a trifle weary of the "first book from Elsewhere" phenomenon. There was ManjushreeThapa not so long ago, heralded as the author of the "first novel written in English coming out of Nepal", a claim shared by Samrat Upadhyaya. Then there was Alai, whose Red Poppies was likewise blurbed as "the first novel written in English to emerge from Tibet". Now there's "the first book about contemporary Afghanistan to be written in English". (Scroll down to The Kite Runner for more detail.) Who said something about falling off the map?