The Good Way: A Himalayan Journey
When 19-year-old anthropologist Julie Tate abandons her missionary group near Mt. Everest in Nepal, she embarks on a solo trek in the Himalayas. Battling an eating disorder and an upbringing riddled with fundamentalism, Julie’s journey is a quest to understand the sacred mountains and people of the Himalaya, and a chance to rekindle her own faith. But soon she takes a wrong turn and stumbles upon a nunnery near Everest, where she contemplates becoming a Buddhist nun. Eventually she makes her way to a village in Eastern Nepal and meets a Christian man from Nagaland who happens to be looking for a wife. Told with honesty and humor, Julie’s story chronicles her struggle to grow up and find a deeper faith, even when things fall apart.
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Julie Tate-Libby is an anthropologist from the Pacific Northwest. She is an adjunct instructor of sociology and anthropology at Wenatchee Valley College and has published several academic works on amenity migration, the power of place, and sacred mountains. She has also dabbled in creative non-fiction, drawing from her experiences in the Himalayas and Southeast Asia. Her writing has appeared in Cirque Literary Journal, and her poem Fire Summer was published on the Washington State Poet Laureate website.