Called by the Hills: A Home in the Himalaya
Called by the Hills: A Home in the Himalaya
Called by the Hills: A Home in the Himalaya
Description
Description
A book about building a home and a wild garden on the edge of a Himalayan forest, illuminated by the author's own watercolors.
When acclaimed novelist Anuradha Roy and her husband stumble upon a derelict cottage in the hill station of Ranikhet, they decide it is where they will now live. Fresh from the neon-lit publishing offices of Delhi, Roy is initially bemused by the gentle pace of life in the mountains but then won over: spellbound by the landscape, taken to the heart of the rural community, and adopted by four mountain dogs and counting.
As Roy tries to rebuild the cottage and create a garden, she encounters nature at its most fierce, beautiful, and vulnerable, and over twenty-five years bears witness to the destructive impact of global warming on the alpine ecosystem. What emerges is a tender and intimate portrait of her surroundings in which rugged nature, lovable dogs, and recalcitrant humans come together to captivating effect. Written with unsentimental clarity, humor, and poignancy, this is a story of profound transformations.
Critical Reviews
Critical Reviews
"Entrancing, consoling, humorous, and wise, Called by the Hills made me melancholy for a place I have never visited, homesick for a house and garden I've never known, and fondly attached to people I've never encountered. I felt as if I held the Himalayas in my hands while I read it." - Chloe Dalton, author of Raising Hare
"Anuradha Roy's writing makes you want to rush to the Himalaya, see the flower valleys and the bold leopards, gossip with the local cowherds, tend the stray dogs, and help out in the author's wayward garden. In every way a beautiful book." - Sebastian Faulks, author of The Seventh Son
"I always look forward to the immersive worlds full of light and shadows and color that Anuradha Roy creates. Luminous and poetic, her words reveal the frailties and desires that make us human, even when telling stories on an epic scale." - Kiran Rao, award-winning filmmaker
"Roy's writing, accompanied by her lovely watercolors and drawings, is transportive, especially when describing the lush countryside. The most gripping sections detail the effects of rapid climate change and creeping modernization. Roy's memoir is a time capsule, an ode to a way of life that might already be lost." - Booklist (starred review)
Publishing Information
Publishing Information
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