Headwind, Laxmi’s Story (2012)

In the summer of 2011 I visited the refugee camps in the east Terai in Nepal near the little town of Damak. During my stay in Nepal I got the opportunity to go to a mountain retreat near Kakani, some 25 kilometres north of Kathmandu. In the weeks there, being completely on my own with only some people from the Kakani Scouting Camp to cater for me I wrote ‘Headwind, Laxmi’s Story’.

It ended up being a 304 page novel about a young Bhutanese woman who was resettled some years ago to the Netherlands. In the novel she looks back at her life in the Beldangi refugee camp, her resettlement and copes with the challenges of settling in a new country and culture. Her low caste boyfriend with who she grew up is resettled to the United States and against the will of her family she tries to turn their love in a relationship. Will she cope in the Netherlands, will she see her love again and what are the costs for her to be a migrant in a country that is increasingly hostile to immigrants.

My newest novel, my first in English, is available through my own publishing company WoordenStorm for Dutch and global markets. ‘Headwind, Laxmi’s Story’ will sell for a retail price of €9,50 incl. VAT but excluding postage and packing and through internet ordering only. This edition will be available in North America, Europe and South Asia for the global Bhutanese community at the retail price incl. taxes but excluding postage and packing.

For more information about my newest work, please contact me through alice@woordenstorm.nl.

Alice Verheij
Middelbirg, Netherlands / Kathmandu, Nepal