Interview

"I started writing Himalayan Dhaba during the winter of 1991, while my wife and I were working in a hospital in the mountains of Northern India. The story began as a screenplay. The world we were immersed in was so visually stunning, it seemed the perfect setting for a movie. But as the characters evolved and their stories took hold of the writing, they demanded the time and development that can only be accomplished in a novel. I still think it would make a great movie, but it's an even better book."


Q. How would you describe Himalayan Dhaba?

Himalayan Dhaba is the story of Mary, an American woman doctor struggling to run a hospital in the mountains of northern India. The novel tells how five very isolated and extremely disparate people find themselves touching bottom both physically and emotionally, and how their lives become enmeshed as they each find a very different pathway to redemption. I can't stand reading novels about people that are completely unsympathetic, so I crafted my characters so even the most despicable ones act in such a way that you understand what motivates them. The novel is about how these people find their way out of their own personal hells; about how fate ...