In this delightful hybrid of a book - part memoir and part travel journal - the bestselling author takes us deep into the mountains of Nepal with a trio of botanist friends in search of native Himalayan plants that will grow in her Vermont garden. Alighting from a plane in the dramatic Annapurna Valley, the ominous signs of Nepal's Maoist guerrillas are all around - an alarming presence that accompanies the travelers throughout their trek. Undaunted, the group sets off into the mountains with Sherpas and bearers, entering an exotic world of spectacular landscapes, vertiginous slopes, isolated villages, herds of yaks, and giant rhododendron, thirty feet tall. The landscape and flora and so much else of what Kincaid finds in the Himalaya - including fruit bats, colourful Buddhist prayer flags, and the hated leeches that plague much of the trip - are new to her, and she approaches it all with an acute sense of wonder and a deft eye for detail. In beautiful, introspective prose, Kincaid intertwines the harrowing Maoist encounters with exciting botanical discoveries, fascinating daily details, and lyrical musings on gardens, nature, home, and family.
- ISBN10 1426209010
- ISBN13 9781426209017
- Publish Date 15 June 2011 (first published 17 July 2007)
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 15 March 2021
- Publish Country US
- Imprint National Geographic Society
- Format eBook
- Pages 208
- Language English