New Delhi, Nov. 30 -- Anuradha Roy's Called by the Hills, her first book-length work of non fiction, is a thing of beauty. Illustrated by the author with exquisite watercolour paintings, mostly of flora and fauna, it is a lushly produced volume, each page redolent with the sights and smells of the Himalayan town of Ranikhet, where Roy has lived with her husband, the publisher Rukun Advani, and their dogs for the last 25 years. Parts of this book have appeared before as occasional pieces in newspapers and magazines, but the fragments have been woven together into a seamless whole by an immersive narrative thread as well as the gorgeous artwork.

From the couple's first arrival in the hills to spend some time at a cottage that belonged to p...