Featured image: Buddhist stupa in the Himalaya Mountains, Nepal / Photo by Galyna_Andrushko on Envato

Profoundly moving, this memoir is heartwarming and inspirational

by Carolyn Ray, JourneyWoman

“This is a heart warming book that is beautifully written. You feel like a passenger alongside Laura as she writes of the trials and tribulations of language and cultural barriers as she and her husband travel into Nepal and then through Europe with their Nepalese ‘parents’. I laughed and cried along as I read the book. A must read!” – From Amazon

Book Club Discussion Questions (Wednesday, November 16, 2022, 8 pm EDT)

We may not get through all of these, but here are some thoughts to start our discussion!

Note: following the practice throughout most of the book, and how we as readers come to know them, we’ve referred to the two indigenous elders as Aama and Baba. It’s important to note, though, that their names are Dar Kumari Gurung and Nar Bahadur Gurung.

1. The book is set primarily in Nepal and France (with some chapters in Italy, Switzerland and the Netherlands). What has your experience with these locations been prior to this book? Did the settings feel familiar from your own travels there?
2. What was your favorite passage in the book and why?
3. The book begins with Laura Maya’s relief at having reached Everest base camp, finishing a trek for which she wasn’t adequately prepared.  Have you ever tackled a physical travel challenge, and did you train for it? How did it measure up to your expectations?
4. Wanting to “give something back,” Laura Maya and David volunteer to help set up a library at a remote, mountainside school.  Do you have any experience with voluntourism?
5. The young French-Australian couple encounter difficult and sometimes traumatic issues in Nepal: the caste system, an awareness that their well-intentioned volunteer work might have been of more benefit to themselves than the community they’d hoped to serve, child marriage, and the ugly world of human trafficking.  Have you ever been faced with these kinds of confronting realities on your travels?
6. The Nepali visitors are less interested in tourist landmarks than in the practicalities of their French family’s day-to-day existence. When you travel, what are you more attracted to: iconic sites or local lifeways?
7. If you have a garden, what might Aama think of it
8. Did you learn anything from Aama and Baba’s visit to the supermarket?
9. On page 147-148, Laura Maya writes that “We have no idea why she’s crying but we do know that when we travel—when we’re disconnected from everyone and everything we’ve ever known—our emotions are much more intense.” Is this something you’ve experienced?
10. In the early days of the trip, Aama and Baba are overawed by the luxury and ease of life in Europe. As time goes by, though, their insightful gaze cuts through the glossy exterior, asking uncomfortable questions about our way of life.  Did their observations lead you to think differently about our lifestyle?
11. Which of Aama and Baba’s comments and actions – or Laura Maya and David’s – surprised you the most? 
12. Gender expectations in Nepal are different to those in France and Australia, and Laura Maya and David’s Nepali hosts find them hard to understand at first. How do Aama and Baba’s observations about gender roles – and the author’s assumptions about their observations – evolve throughout the book?
13. While the author questions her own motives and viewpoints from the start, did you feel there was any particular moment when she experienced a significant shift in perspective about the differences between French and Nepali culture, or her relationship with her Nepali ‘parents’? Was there a moment when your own perspective shifted?
14. Did you learn anything new about Nepali customs?  What about European customs?

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