"As long as I can remember, I have longed to touch some sacred essence I didn't have words for, something I knew only by its presence and mostly by its absence. This longing led me from my home; yet ultimately I believed it would lead me home, bring me to a place in the landscape-a place outside myself-where I would want to stay. And so I set out on my journey, traveling, like many before me, to the Himalayan mountains, led by a longing for home, watching for signs I was on the right path."

Based on her experiences in Nepal and the United States, Thin Places is Ann Armbrecht's eloquent meditation on what it means to come home, particularly to a culture that lacks deep ties to the natural world. During the 1990s, Armbrecht, an American anthropologist, made several trips to northeastern Nepal, studying how villagers acquired, farmed, and held onto their land. But instead of the settled, contented place of her imagination, Armbrecht's village was filled with men and women who were equally restless to travel and experience the world.

How can we reconcile our longing for distant places with the desire to connect to a particular piece of land? Can we find ways of moving while staying in place? Armbrecht first asks these questions in Nepal and then more urgently when she returns to the United States. The pilgrimage to Hedangna utterly transformed Armbrecht, offering her an unusual framework for recognizing and regarding herself, her relationships, and her connection to the world. Her journey also helped her learn how to live more lightly on earth. By discovering the things that are most worthwhile, Armbrecht believes we can draw closer together as a society and develop a more beneficent relationship with the land.