Called by the Hills by Anuradha Roy

 

I came across an article on this book and thought I would treat myself to it, and I agree with Chloe Dalton and Sebastian Faulks: it is a gem.

 

Thirty years ago, when Anuradha and het husband stumbled upon a derelict cottage near the hill station of Ranikhet (state of Uttarakhand, India) they decided to make it their home. The book is a collection of tales of life in her new home: the people, the animals, the plants. 

After living in Delhi Anuradha has to get used to the gentler pace of life, the impossibility of some things (telephone connections, fast Internet, getting to the next town quickly) and the unavailability of others (the shops have a very limited stock). 
'The power failed because a tree had fallen on a power cable. "Why do you need bijli (electricity in Hindi) in the daytime when there's sunlight?" people asked us in genuine puzzlement. We waited. The plumber was called away to his village on mysterious business that had to do with a melancholic buffalo. (...) He idled over an apparently limitless supply of smokes because the taps he was to fit still hadn't arrived from Haldwani. How could they? The roads uphill had been washed away by the rains.' 

 With Anuradha we wander the paths around Ranikhet. Carefully, because leopards are a real danger. We meet her neighbours and get to know the dogs that they had no intention of keeping but who just arrived and stayed.

 

 

'Twenty-five years on, I know the precise bend on the road to Ranikhet where the air changes to champagne. We draw deep breaths there. If we were balloons, we would inflate the tips of our toes and fingers.'

We follow her struggles to make a garden, not easy with the dogs running loose, but somehow she succeeds. And we share her sadness at the changes (the building of reservoirs, fierce monsoons owing to climate change) that mean the disappearance of animals.

 

Anurasha is a great storyteller and a wonderful artist, as the illustrations show. A lovely book.

 

I end with a confession. When I bought this book I vaguely thought: 'I thought her name was spelled with a 't', I must have misread it all this time'. A few weeks ago I ordered 'Mother Mary comes to me', by, I thought, the same author. It was not until I started reading it and saw the two books side by side that the penny dropped. I cannot be the only one making this mistake as Anuradha Roy's Wikipedia page starts with: 'Not to be confused with Arundathi Roy'....
(By the way, 'Mother Mary comes to me' is great. I am making myself read slowly, as I tend to rush and that would not do justice to this book)