Twenty-nine-year-old Conor Grennan quits his job and plans an adventure around the globe. To impress friends and potential romantic partners, he decides to start with three months volunteering at a Nepalese orphanage. Conor expects this charitable work to be a brief detour before his real journey begins. Instead, he discovers the children in his care are victims of Nepal's civil war, trafficked from their families and lost in a system that profits from their displacement. The experience transforms Conor from a self-centered traveler into someone who cannot walk away. He abandons his original plans and commits to reuniting these lost children with their families. What begins as a superficial gesture becomes a life-changing mission that reshapes not only Conor's future but the lives of dozens of Nepalese children. This New York Times bestseller combines humor and hope while tackling serious issues of child trafficking and war's impact on families.
Genres: family, adventure, non-fiction, biography-memoir, current-affairs
Vibes: emotional, fast-paced, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, found-family
Setting: Nepal, Virginia Tech
Period: 21st Century
Unknown Binding · William Morrow
Content warnings: child-abuse, kidnapping, trafficking