Author: McCall Smith, Alexander
Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945)
Published on 1 October 2026 by Birlinn General (Polygon An Imprint of Birlinn Limited) in the United Kingdom.
Hardback | 272 pages
242 x 162 x 26 | 468g
As heard on BBC Radio 4 Book at Bedtime.
It's never too late to make a change.
Single and approaching middle age, Maeve Macdonald feels she has reached a point at which, if she doesn't do something drastic soon, life will have passed her by. And so, after twenty years of teaching, she gives up her career and leaves the only home she's ever known in search of adventure.
As she prepares for this exciting new chapter in her life, travelling through South Asia, she finds that everything is going remarkably well “ quite possibly things really are changing for the better. Karma, it appears, is on her side.
But not long after arriving in Nepal, her good luck seems to have run out: an injury puts a pause on her plans, and an unexpected fall nearly ends her new-found friendship with a handsome American called Charles.
Will Maeve have to abandon her trip and go back home alone? And will Charles be able to pluck up the courage to tell Maeve how he really feels before they go their separate ways?