Called by the Hills: A Wild Flowering in the Himalaya

By Anuradha Roy

A book about building a home and a wild garden on the edge of a Himalayan forest, illuminated by the author's own watercolors.

When acclaimed 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. Fresh from the neon-lit publishing offices of Delhi, Roy is initially bemused by the gentle pace of life in the mountains but then won over: spellbound by the landscape, taken to the heart of the rural community, and adopted by four mountain dogs and counting.

As Roy tries to rebuild the cottage and create a garden, she encounters nature at its most fierce, beautiful, and vulnerable, and over twenty-five years bears witness to the destructive impact of global warming on the alpine ecosystem. What emerges is a tender and intimate portrait of her surroundings in which rugged nature, loveable dogs, and recalcitrant humans come together to captivating effect. Written with unsentimental clarity, humor, and poignancy, this is a story of profound transformations.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0063491834
• ISBN13: 9780063491830
• Release Date: June 2026
• Publisher: HarperOne
• Length: 176 Pages
• Weight: 1.42 lbs.