The Woman Who Climbed Trees: A Novel

by Smriti Ravindra

Overview

“A stunning chronicle of an Indian woman’s coming-of-age... This is electrifying.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review

“Is this a ghost story?” Meena asked the barber’s wife who told the tale. “I don’t want to hear scary stories one night before I marry.”

 “Not all ghost stories are scary,” said the barber’s wife, laughing at Meena. “Besides, we have a long time before us, and stories are little baskets to carry time away in.”

Exquisitely written, a blend of ghost stories, myths, and song, The Woman Who Climbed Trees is a haunting, deeply felt multi-generational story that illuminates the transitional nature of women’s lives and the feeling of loss they experience, as they give up one home and family to become part of another.

When she marries a man from Nepal, Meena must leave behind her family and home in India and forge a new identity in a strange place. The Woman Who Climbed Trees follows her, the women who surround her, and the daughter she eventually raises, as they carefully navigate the uncertain tides of their diasporic lives.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780063240490
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	03/04/2025
Pages:	368
Product dimensions:	5.31(w) x 8.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Smriti Ravindra holds an MFA in creative writing from North Carolina State University. As a Fulbright scholar, she studied women’s oral storytelling in the Terai region of her native Nepal. Her fiction and journalism have been published in the US and in India. The Woman Who Climbed Trees is her first novel. She currently resides in Mumbai.

Editorial Reviews

★ 12/12/2022

Ravindra debuts with a stunning chronicle of an Indian woman’s coming-of-age. The story opens with Meena, a 14-year-old girl from Darbhanga, preparing for her wedding to Manmohan, a 21-year-old Nepalese student. The night before the ceremony, a local barber’s wife gives Meena exquisitely detailed mehndi tattoos and tells her an ambiguous story about a young bride who takes to climbing a tree every night and is condemned as a witch. Though the story unnerves Meena, the barber’s wife encourages her to marry anyway, as a woman’s “life is in limbo until she marries and changes mother, motherland, home, name, affections.” In Kathmandu, where she moves alone while Manmohan finishes his education, misery sets in quickly. Meena falls hopelessly in love with her sister-in-law Kumud and loathes her absent husband. After several miscarriages, Meena gives birth to a son, and two years later, a daughter. Later, with Manmohan in the house, Meena cannot meet her husband’s exacting standards for cooking and cleaning, and the children witness their parents’ sometimes violent interactions. Ravindra stuffs the epic with wildly irreverent scenes, such as Meena giving up her fertility prayers and instead fantasizing about Bollywood stars. Many Indian and Nepali stories, songs, and myths anchor the narrative, and by the end, which circles back to the witch story, their meaning in relation to Meena becomes increasingly complex. This is electrifying. Agent: Stephanie Cabot, Susanna Lea Assoc. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

Ravindra debuts with a stunning chronicle of an Indian woman’s coming-of-age. The story opens with Meena, a 14-year-old girl from Darbhanga, preparing for her wedding to Manmohan, a 21-year-old Nepalese student. . . . Many Indian and Nepali stories, songs, and myths anchor the narrative, and by the end, which circles back to the witch story, their meaning in relation to Meena becomes increasingly complex. This is electrifying.”
— Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Through a mix of ghost stories, myths, and songs, Ravindra examines the way that women are expected to reshape their lives for men and the pain that comes with leaving everything behind. When 14-year-old Meena marries a man from Nepal, she moves with him to Kathmandu and quickly grows to abhor him, despite their two children together. Meena’s discontent is tempered only by the solace she finds in the women around her and their stories of being uprooted.”
— Harper’s Bazaar

"The Woman Who Climbed Trees is a lyrical, furious triumph of a novel, mapping the marital journey of its protagonist, Meena, from girlhood to motherhood, from India to Nepal, from prosaic reality to magical madness. In the tradition of Salman Rushdie and Isabelle Allende, Smriti Ravindra braids epic lore and myth to a narrative of claustrophobic domesticity, earthly damage, and incandescent love."  — Maria Dahvana Headley, New York Times-bestselling author of Beowulf: A New Translation and The Mere Wife

“The Great Nepali Novel is here! I haven’t read a better book in ages.” — PRAJWAL PARAJULY, author of The Gurkha’s Daughter

“Smriti Ravindra’s first novel is a magnificent tale of growing up as an outsider. Her protagonist combines a prickly individuality and a strange relatability. And this despite the brooding presence of a mother whose love is veined by her own demons. If you have loved and wondered why, you will want to read this book.” — JERRY PINTO, author of The Education of Yuri

“The Woman Who Climbed Trees is a searing tale of trauma, separation and the circumscription of women’s lives on either side of the Indo-Nepal border. This debut novel shines with vivid detail, weaving in folklore and modern cinematic references to create a portrait of heartbreak and maternal love.” — ANNIE ZAIDI, author of Prelude to a Riot

“The Woman Who Climbed Trees is the achingly beautiful story of one family’s search for fulfilment amid the deep psychological wounds inflicted by Nepali society. (...) With great empathy and skill, Ravindra captures the longing, frustration, and hurt that marks the Madhesi experience. This is a remarkable novel by an exceptionally talented writer, and an essential read for those interested in Nepal and its borderlands.”
— MANJUSHREE THAPA, author of All of Us in Our Own Lives

From the Publisher