"Anyone who plans a trip around the world and has more than just selfish motives in mind, is well advised to read this book." (Süddeutsche Zeitung)
Stranded in the Himalayas - how the inner journey begins when the outer journey comes to a halt.
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Meeting point Himalaya: Here the carefree globetrotter Michael has come to see his travel companion Anna again. Months have passed since they last met - months in which Michael has traveled thousands of kilometers, always by land, lived in a monastery in China and taught orphans in Myanmar. Now the two soulmates want to find out if their relationship will last by trekking together. Plans have long been made, a hike around Annapurna is on the agenda, and they already have the visas for India and Pakistan in their pockets. But then the Corona lockdown surprises the two in Nepal. When the police seal off the cities, Michael and Anna flee hastily to a small mountain village. There, at the foot of the eight-thousanders, they find refuge and a corrugated iron sheet over their heads.
At first they don't have much to say to each other, and in the village they are called "Corona", because the western travelers bring the virus. Then beggars, vendors and mountain guides become neighbors. Food becomes scarce, hunger sets in. Everyone has to go to the fields, to grow rice. They share lentils, help build a stable for the ox, laugh at their clumsiness, and survive a terrible storm in which landslides sweep a neighboring family to their deaths. You get glimpses of how the pandemic affects the lives of ordinary families and get close to the people and their individual fates. The month-long lockdown allows them to gain deep insights into the lives of their Nepalese neighbors. In the process, the two change: from travelers on their trip around the world, from insecure people stranded in a foreign country to students of a philosophy of life that is close to nature and practices acceptance.
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More and more, the focus shifts from themselves to the community of fate with which they are stranded and of which they become a part. In the process, the two previously unattached loners not only find true friends, but also love for one another.
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