-Satisfies a long-held fascination with Nepal: Americans have an abiding interest in the south Asian country of Nepal, home of Mount Everest, and this book provides an inside look at the culture and lives of rural Nepali people.

-Strong appeal for college students and recent grads: Interest in the rest of the world is strong in today’s US university students-nearly 350,000 of them studied abroad in 2018-19, and nearly half went to a low or middle income country-and this book will prepare them for a range of issues they may experience with cross-cultural work and travel.

-Valuable information for US health professionals volunteering abroad: Millions of American health professionals travel to low income countries to volunteer every year. The author’s encounters with health problems and beliefs in the Nepal setting provide an introduction to the kinds of challenges they will encounter.

• Timely subject matter: The book combines interest in Nepal with the aim of many Americans to learn about health in low income countries, in particular in its exploration of how the practice of Western medicine can be beneficial but also at times misunderstood by people from other cultures.