Called by the Hills: A Home in the Himalaya

Review Quotes:

"Roy's writing, accompanied by her lovely watercolors and drawings, is transportive, especially when describing the lush countryside. The most gripping sections detail the effects of rapid climate change and creeping modernization. Roy's memoir is a time capsule, an ode to a way of life that might already be lost." - Booklist (starred review)

"The writing rings like a bell ... An enchanting account of life far from the city." - Kirkus Reviews

"An ode to the places we call home, Roy's memoir is lovingly rendered and illustrated by her own artwork." - Ms. Magazine

"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, author of Raising Hare

"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, author of The Seventh Son

"I always look forward to the immersive worlds full of light and shadows and color 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, award-winning filmmaker

Review Citations:

• Kirkus Reviews 04/01/2026 (EAN 9780063491830, Hardcover)
• Booklist 05/01/2026 (EAN 9780063491830, Hardcover) - *Starred Review

Contributor Bio:Roy, Anuradha

Anuradha Roy is a writer and potter. She was born in Kolkata and grew up mostly in Hyderabad, India. She has written five novels. Her first, An Atlas of Impossible Longing, was translated into sixteen languages. Sleeping on Jupiter, her third novel, won the DSC Prize for Fiction 2016 and was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2015. All the Lives We Never Lived won the 2022 Sahitya Akademi Award, among India's highest literary honours, and was shortlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award. Her non-fiction has been published in Guardian, Paris Review, Indian Express, LitHub and elsewhere. Roy lives in Ranikhet, where she is a graphic designer at Permanent Black, a scholarly press she runs with her partner.