The Saint of Kathmandu: And Other Tales of the Sacred in Distant Lands

With the deft evocations of a master storyteller and the exhaustive knowledge of a scholar, LeVine writes of the uneasy relations between Islam and spirit possession in a Nigerian town and between Christianity and witchcraft in a Kenyan village; of Mexican women taking the Virgin Mary as their role model; of a Nepalese teenager's flight from an arranged marriage to ordination as a Buddhist nun and a feminist career; of a Filipina maid in affluent Hong Kong turning to a charismatic Catholic church for support during long separations from her family; and of American Zen Buddhists trying to maintain their community despite a deeply flawed teacher.