City of Ghosts: A Novel

Rating:
Summary: a compelling story with vivid imagery
Review: I found this book a bit slow at first, but soon I was drawn in as the characters and settings became stunningly real in my mind. I felt like I WAS the protagonist, and "on her trip". I've never been to Kathmandu but when I see images of it I feel like I've been there, thanks to this book.

Rating:
Summary: Better than 99.5% of Oprah's Book Club
Review: This is perhaps the first book I've read that deals with the remnants of loneliness that follow only children into adulthood. I thought it was an excellent book, and I made my roommate read it. She also loved it, and insisted that the author must have been an only child herself to have protrayed those feelings so well. Besides which, the author also shows considerable skill in exploring problematic relationships without demonizing any of the characters.

Rating:
Summary: A captivating story in a beautifully rendered setting
Review: This story immediately draws the reader in, and the book really takes off when it moves from New York to Kathmandu. The author brings Nepal alive, and she also involves the reader in the delicate process of discovering and finding one's place in a new culture. The sometimes joyful and sometimes painful unfurling of a complicated web of relationships is the central element of the book. At the same time, the author does not allow that storyline to drown out the main character's own process of independent self discovery and her increasing involvement in the rich and complicated new country she finds herself in.