Kathmandu

A novel for young people aged ten and above. Twelve year old Jo and her mother are on the holiday of a lifetime in Nepal. Alone in the middle of nowhere they are attacked by Maoist rebels and left for dead. Injured, Jo is found by villagers, where she is cared for by a family with a daughter her age. There are no secrets in these villages, and it's dangerous for the family to take in a foreigner at a time and in a place where the rebels are at their most powerful. And then it becomes more serious. Most of the Royal Family are assassinated. The new King is weak, and the Maoists become stronger. Against all of this, Jo recovers, becomes for a while a Nepalese villager, and then, with the help of her newly adoptive family, undertakes the epic and dangerous journey to Kathmandu, contact with the outside world, and home. It's a story, not of super-heroes, but of real lives in difficult times.