Tulsi Gurung arrives in Pennsylvania on a day so impossibly damp and gray he wonders if he's landed on the underside of the world. He is sixteen and brimming with wonder and fear. Until now, Tulsi has spent his entire life within the confines of Refugee Camp Goldhap along with tens of thousands of other Lhotshampas--ethnically Nepalese inhabitants of Bhutan--labeled outsiders by the Bhutanese Monarchy and forced from their homes. Born and raised in the camp, Tulsi is technically a refugee from Bhutan, a land he's never set eyes on.
Reunited with his grandfather, Tulsi struggles to navigate his new life, his new country, and his raw separation from his beloved sister Susmita, the person who truly tethers him to the world.
As he comes of age in a strange land, navigating first friendships, loss and loneliness, the underbelly of illegal gambling and the pull of old loyalties, Tulsi must confront the wound Susmita's loss has left in him and whether he has remained someone she would recognize.
