Nima

by Adam Popescu

Overview

Nima is a young Sherpa woman living in the foothills of the Himalayas, a range so immense and a place so isolated it is impossible to imagine anything existing beyond it. Nima and her sister are both betrothed to Norbu, a local Sherpa, but when Norbu stuns both families by only wanting to marry Nima, Nima flees her father’s wrath and the destiny that had been arranged for all of them.
Disguised as a man, Nima seeks work, and is hired by an American journalist to guide their small group up to Everest Base Camp. The journey is treacherous, and Nima challenges every restriction her culture places on her gender while balancing the duties of her new role as guide. Popescu brings to life the many contradictions of the region through the eyes of Nima: trails strewn with litter overlook majestic views, Buddhist clarity is marred by sexual oppression, and a tourism industry that fuels the local economy also threatening to destroy it.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781944700850
Publisher:	The Unnamed Press
Publication date:	05/21/2019
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	5.60(w) x 8.60(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Adam Popescu is a writer and journalist whose work has appeared in The New York Times, Washington Post, Bloomberg Businessweek, Vanity Fair, National Geographic, Conde Nast Traveler, Marketplace, Playboy, Fast Company, Scientific American, Outside, The Guardian, New Scientist, Los Angeles Magazine, and elsewhere. In 2013, he climbed 18,000 feet up Mount Everest, covering the impact of tourism on the land and local people for the BBC. That experience would inspire his debut novel, Nima.

Editorial Reviews

03/25/2019

A young Sherpa woman grapples with her narrow social roles in Popescu’s emotional debut. Seventeen-year-old Nima, the eldest in a family of six daughters, lives a precious existence in the drought-affected village in the shadows of the Himalayas in Nepal . The family’s livelihood has become increasingly precarious in the three years since her father was injured in an avalanche, leaving him unable to serve as a guide to the crowds of foreigners climbing the mountains. He sees the marriage of his daughters as the only route to regain wealth, and so offers Nima and her sister as polygamous wives to the well-to-do Norbu. Nima balks at the marriage, even after compassionate, forward-looking Norbu agrees to marry just her, and flees after her father beats her. With the help of Val, an American journalist making her first trek on Everest, Nima disguises herself as a male guide. Val and her companions offer an unheard of sum for her services, which Nima hopes will allow her to move to Kathmandu and pursue a more fulfilling life. However, the suspicions of the more experienced guides and challenging encounters on the trail soon threaten her plan. This striking depiction of Sherpa life, particularly the difficulties faced by Sherpa women, is bolstered by Nima’s strong narrative voice, making this a perfect fit for book clubs . Agent: Pilar Queen, McCormick Literary. (May)

Publishers Weekly

"This striking depiction of Sherpa life, particularly the difficulties faced by Sherpa women, is bolstered by Nima’s strong narrative voice, making this a perfect fit for book clubs." —Publishers Weekly

"Adam Popescu’s novel Nima is as much a composite memoir of the tragic optimism of Himalayan youth as a fictional account of a blossoming woman surviving the perils of both nature and modernity at the same time. It paints a memorably vivid contrast between the power of the mountains and that of the human spirit. Beautifully done." —Parag Khanna, author of The Future is Asian

“Set against the backdrop of Mount Everest, this portrait of a young Sherpa woman is a breathlessly climbing, thrillingly high-stakes coming-of-age story... Nima is the perfect book club pick—full of high stakes storytelling that everyone will devour, with plenty of thought-provoking nuances to explore in discussion." —Foreword Reviews

From the Publisher

2019-03-03

Journalist Popescu's debut novel tells the story of a teenage girl from the Sherpa community coming-of-age in the Himalayas.

The novel begins two days before 17-year-old narrator Nima's wedding day, about three years after a tragedy befell her family, which includes her abusive father, compliant mother, and five younger sisters. When the groom-to-be, Norbu, seeks to alter an important detail of the arrangement, the prospect of the marriage becomes untenable, and Nima must flee. Few opportunities exist for married women in Nima's community, let alone young, single ones, but a determined Nima commits to supporting herself the way her father once supported the family and Norbu would his, by trekking to Mount Everest's base camp, initially disguised as a boy, and then as the girl she is. She encounters a trio of Westerners—Val, a reporter for the BBC, Val's boyfriend, Ethan, and their photographer friend Daniel—that hires her as one of two guides. (Popescu has himself climbed partway up Everest as a reporter for the BBC.) Between the hostile terrain and even more hostile culture toward women and girls, the journey proves perilous. The novel is at its best when it's grounded in Nima's spiritual upbringing even though she herself doesn't necessarily believe what her parents do. But too often, Nima is explaining her culture and the worldview that alienates her so deeply to the reader. The novel's structure, language, and characters, most of which do not move beyond archetypes, do little to enrich the story. Nima faces many compelling challenges, but a series of hardships, even when rooted in intersecting oppressive circumstances, do not a novel make.

Popescu tries hard to give voice to the needs and wants of a girl from a marginalized community but falls short of his literary aspirations.

Kirkus Reviews