Called by the Hills (COLLECTIBLE EDITION ON PRE-ORDER)

When 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. Leaving behind the freneticism of Delhi, Roy is initially bemused by the gentle pace of life in the mountains. Before long, however, she is won over: spellbound by the landscape, taken to the heart of her sometimes recalcitrant neighbours and adopted by several mountain dogs.

Over twenty-five years, as Roy becomes accustomed to living among forests where leopards roam freely, she will come to encounter nature at its most fierce, beautiful and vulnerable – and bear witness to the destructive impact of global warming on the alpine ecosystem.

Called by the Hills: A Home in the Himalaya is an intimate portrait of a home, a community and a rugged, extraordinary landscape. Written with unsentimental clarity, humour and poignancy, this is an account of profound transformations.

PRAISE FOR THE BOOK

'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

'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

'I always look forward to the immersive worlds full of light and shadows and colour 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

PRAISE FOR ANURADHA ROY

'Roy brings the mountains alive not only in their floral, incandescent glory but also in their moodiness and nonchalance.' – The New Yorker

'Roy's ability to capture the fragility and tragedy of life will stay with you long after you've finished reading.' – Good Reading Magazine, Australia

'A striking quality of Roy's style is her ability to weave the beauty of place, culture, and people through magnificent prose while drawing back the curtain to reveal the turbulence underneath.' – Washington Independent Review of Books

'[A] writer of great subtlety and intelligence.' – Kamila Shamsie, The Guardian

'A writer of extreme brilliance, humanity and grace.' – Chigozie Obioma, author of An Orchestra of Minorities