In 2011 while working for the Headwind project in Nepal and filming in the refugee camps and many other locations Alice Verheij wrote a novel. That novel was – though originally the objective of the project she started in the summer of 2010 – a by product of the work for the Headwind Project.

Headwind, Laxmi’s Story is a cleverly deviced novel. A compelling story of a young refugee girl who in her twenties is now living in the Netherlands after been born and spending most of het life in the Beldangi refugee camp. In the story she flashes back constantly to her old life while struggling to get the grips on her new life. And then there is Jigme, the boy she loves and who has grown up with her in the camp but now lives as an immigrant in the United States.

The novel depicts the challenges of a young girl becoming an adult women and at the same time switching homeground, culture, language feelings from the old Hindu society in a Bhutanese refugee camp in Nepal to a city in the Netherlands. From poverty to the temptations of the west and from a religious culture to a secular culture. But also from a life with many people closeby to a life in relative anonimity and lonelyness. The story shows her struggle for love which in the end will set her against her own parents who still follow old traditions.

Headwind, Laxmi’s Story will become available through internet sales in the spring of 2012. Printed in Nepal to make the book affordable for global distribution. More information can be found at the authors website www.aliceverheij.com.