In the Land of No Right Angles

Starred review from July 21, 2008
It starts with a standard conceit: “What I saw on my semester abroad.” Alex Larson, a “wholesome-bordering-on-nerdy” Des Moines girl, interested in photography and what lies beyond her upstate New York college, spends a year in Nepal. While she’s on a trekking trip, as a favor to Will, a charismatic American expat 13 years her senior, Alex contacts his friend Maya. The two young women meet, and under the cover of night Alex delivers Maya from traditional village life to the relative metropolis of Kathmandu, and Will’s bachelor pad. The triumvirate bond over elaborate meals, pilgrimages and drugs; just before the house of postcards begins to topple, Alex reluctantly returns to college. She comes back four years later to find Nepal changed, and Maya has fallen in with a questionable crowd, disappearing for days at a time. On Falkland Road, Bombay’s red-light district, Alex, armed with a camera and her wits, must confront the seedy underbelly of her fantasyland to find her friend. Equal parts coming-of-age quest and travelogue, this debut novel dazzles most with its deft descriptions, which transform an unimaginably foreign land into terra cognita.

November 1, 2008
Adult/High School-While spending a year in Nepal, Alex, an American college student, meets Maya, who is from the hill country. She helps Maya leave her home and begin a new life in Kathmandu, and both young women feel that there is something strong that binds them together. Alex makes two more trips to Nepal over the next eight years. She learns that Maya has gone to Bombay, where she has entered the sex trade, and Alex follows her there, hoping that their bond will allow her to find Maya and somehow help her. This is a story about a relationship that cuts across cultures, but also about a culture that severs relationships. With complex and intriguing characters and beautifully drawn settings, this compelling novel has much to offer American teen girls ready to look at the larger world."Sarah Flowers, Santa Clara County Library, CA"

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