Amazon.com Review
In Craig Joseph Danner's engaging and compassionate debut novel,
Himalayan Dhaba, an American seeking direction in her life reluctantly accepts the position of town doctor to a remote Himalayan village. Reeling from the death of her husband, Mary Davis travels to the north Indian village where he once volunteered. She has agreed to assist his mentor, Dr. Vargeela, in his practice, but upon her arrival, Mary finds the doctor absent for an undetermined time and his outdated, overwhelmed hospital dependent upon her skills to remain open. Emotionally fragile and underqualified, Mary struggles with her sense of obligation to the town and her mounting self-doubt, exhaustion, and depression. She soon meets some of the town's colorful assemblage of tourists, locals, and expatriates: Amod, a lonely villager and waiter who falls in love with Mary; Ravi, a handsome Canadian visiting nearby family; Phillip, the spoiled son of an English ambassador, who enters the hospital with a broken back, the result of a mugging; and Antone, an aging drug dealer and heroin addict who kidnaps Phillip and plans to offer him for ransom. Throughout, Danner explores the ways these characters' lives are altered and united by seemingly random events and the commonalities of experience that transcend language and cultural differences.
Danner, who based the book on his own experience as a doctor in the Himalayas, has created an emotionally mature and highly detailed novel, offering personal insight into Dr. Mary's search for identity and community. The novel has a strong sense of vibrancy and authenticity, conveying a comprehensive view of the beauty and severity of life in the Himalayas, such as the "beggars with their pleading palms and exudative skin disease" and the mountains with "shoulders hunched like mourners gathered round a grave, all dressed in black." Harsh in its honesty but ultimately life-affirming, Himalayan Dhaba reflects the hard-earned wisdom gained from a difficult but worthwhile experience. --Ross Doll
From Publishers Weekly
One of five recipients of the 2002 Pacific Northwest Book Award, Danner's previously self-published debut novel is a captivating tale about an American doctor who brings her medical expertise to a snowy village in northern India and quickly finds herself in over her head. After her husband, Richard, dies, Mary Davis relocates to the small, rudimentary Himalayan hospital where he once worked, hoping to carry on his medical labor of love. The remote, bare-bones facility is run by Dr. Vargeela, a hero of Richard's, who disappears shortly after Mary's arrival, leaving her in charge of a small staff of nurses, a motley collection of patients some severely ill and limited medical provisions, as well as the drugged-out, obnoxious Western hippies who regularly drift into the hospital. Davis's diligence, along with plenty of rushed (and impressively detailed) operations, pays off, and she manages to keep the facility afloat. But she's powerless to stop the kidnapping of Phillip Davenport, the teenage son of a British diplomat, who becomes a patient of Mary's when he breaks his neck. Preparing to transfer Phillip to a different hospital, Mary sends him off in a jeep whose driver, well aware of the pampered boy's bankability, ends up holding him for ransom. A taut, nail-biting climax unfurls across the frozen canyons of the Himalayas. Danner, a former medical practitioner in Himalayan India, parlays his technical knowledge and storytelling skill into a vibrant, emotionally resonant tale.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
