Book summary

In this memoir, a young Canadian woman decides to take her first trip outside of North America before she is to be married. After accepting a teaching post in Bhutan, a tiny kingdom in the Himalayas bordering China and India, she eventually breaks off her engagement and falls in love with another man.

Media reviews

"In BEYOND THE SKY & EARTH, Ms. Zeppa candidly recalls the uphill climb that followed. Assigned to teach second-graders in a remote Bhutanese village, she scoffs when first told that Thimpu, the capital city of 40,000, will someday seem like New York to her. But she becomes dazed shortly after reaching the village where she will work. She can't even look out her bedroom window on the verdant valley below without feeling alienated....Of her motivation to go to Bhutan in the first place, Ms. Zeppa writes, 'For all my years of study, I wasn't sure I had actually learned anything. I had gained intellectual skills and tools, yes, but what did I know?' At least she knows far more about an isolated, high corner of the world than most of us."