This is a curious little book – mainly a travel memoir, with a dash of sociology, botany and personal history tossed in.

Written by the Antigua-born, Harvard professor writer Jamaica Kincaid, it tells of her trip with a friend and two acquaintances to Nepal to (for her) gather seeds to plant in her Vermont garden. That’s a hell of a trip to collect seeds!

She talks about the locals there, the leaches, the incredibly hot weather in October at the roof of the world (still odd to me) and a bit of her life.

One of those books that sticks with you – nothing earth-shattering, but so personal with such authentic notes (don’t want to break a leg on these paths where nothing is close; the beer they enjoy in some small town had to be carried on someone’s back from a very distant town).

Kincaid’s writing is luminous, like the Nepal skies she describes.

The book was written in 1990, and I recently saw a review of it on some list of recommendations for this-or-that in The Atlantic – first I’ve heard of it. Glad I did.