SYNOPSIS

 

When Harvard med student Winnie Laing’s famous heart surgeon father dies of cardiac arrest, her life falls apart.  Dropping out, she retreats to her family home in Sonoma, California.  Lured by the memory of a childhood bedtime story about a legendary Chinese warrior woman known for her travels and self-sacrifice, she sets out on an adventure to find a new meaning of life.

 

At the Mountain School for Sherpas, high in the Himalayas, she finds a purpose after meeting a brilliant young student, who she believes holds the key to the future of Nepal.  But Khiri has an accident while yak-herding with his uncle Dorje and is visited by a mysterious and devastating vision of the Buddha. He leaves everything behind to find an old guru at an obscure and dilapidated hut near the peak of Mt. Everest.  Soon he becomes the new hermit of Kala Pattar, when the old man is nowhere to be found. 

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Winnie, however, has a bigger plan for Khiri - if she can find him.  Enlisting the help of the quiet, animal-loving yak-herder Dorje, she sets out to find his nephew.  When she does, a globe-trotting adventure awaits them, from Kala Pattar, to Outback Australia, Lhasa Tibet, Imperial China, and a vineyard in Sonoma.  

 

The Heart of Kala Pattar is an epic and heroic tale of selfless love, native art, 

visionary design and conservation.  The novel follows in the tradition of author Nancy Young's first novel Strum, a magical, continent-and time-hopping story of forbidden love, family and classical guitar music.

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