Between the Mountain and the Sky turns a hopeful lens on the world and shows us what can happen when a single person takes a decisive action to help another and, in the process, changes the lives of hundreds–including her own.

Maggie’s story begins in suburban New Jersey, in a comfortable middle-class family that supports her decision to take a gap year before starting college. During her travels, the trajectory of her life alters when she has a surprise encounter with a Nepali girl breaking rocks in a quarry. Maggie decides to invest her life savings of five thousand dollars to buy a piece of land and open a children’s home in Nepal.

That home becomes Kopila Valley Children’s Home, and eventually, the nonprofit Maggie launches, the BlinkNow Foundation, also starts the Kopila Valley School, which provides tuition-free education for more than four hundred students. Maggie and BlinkNow’s work have been recognized around the world for their innovative, sustainable work.

However, this book isn’t a how-to for fledging philanthropists or nonprofit founders–it’s a coming-of-age story about a young woman suspended between two worlds, as well as the love, loss, healing, and hope she experiences along the way. And Maggie’s inspiring, intimate tale shows readers an important truth: the power to change the world exists within all of us.