Novelist Jamaica Kincaid chronicles her three-week trek through Nepal, the spectacular and exotic Himalayan land where she and her companions seek to gather seeds for planting at home She summons up a realm dominated by magnificent mountains and teeming with colourful life, spinning a tale that includes everything from edging by a herd of ungainly yaks on a perilous path to confronting unpredictable Maoist guerrillas who could erupt into violence at any time