BEYOND THE NEXT VILLAGE A Year of Magic and Medicine in Nepal

After an unexpected divorce left her feeling lost, Mary Anne Mercer went to Nepal in 1978 to work as a nurse on a vaccination team. Using journals kept all those years ago, she recounts her experiences of that year. Mercer's voice clearly exhibits affection for the local people she met and worked with, as well as a purity of purpose and an ability to pronounce Nepalese words. She walks miles uphill in flip-flops to remote villages, struggles to communicate with limited but improving language skills, and attends Nepalese festivals while always standing out as a tall, light-haired foreigner. Despite awkward phrasing and intonation--she won't be mistaken for a professional narrator--Mercer's energy and authenticity keep the listener's attention. A.B. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine [Published: OCTOBER 2022]