Tracing the Moon: A memoir of a woman's journey in India

In a busy London hospital a young nurse cares for people with HIV/AIDS. One night, at the bedside of a dying patient, the veil lifts between life and death, and she glimpses something she has never seen before.

Judith embarks on a quest to understand what she saw. She leaves her job, sells her houseboat and buys a one-way ticket to Bombay.

Her six-year search for meaning took her to a humble Himalayan ashram, where she embraced the sadhu's life of renunciation. She lives alone in a hut in the remote Parvati Valley and visits monasteries and ashrams, temples and towns where the holy name of 'Ram' spills from everyone's lips.

In Lucknow, she met Papaji, her guru--who gave her a new name: Prem Kumari.

Many are drawn to India for understanding, but few have delved as deeply into the local spiritual traditions and into their own being as deeply as Kumari did. She allows India to sweep her away, allows her sense of self to be rewritten, and finds herself touching again that vast oneness she felt at the side of her dying patient. But in the process she must also face painful and long-buried truths about her own family.

A lyrical and vibrant depiction of India and its people, Tracing the Moon transports the reader into the mystical heart of this ancient and spiritual country.

Kumari's honest and moving account of her determined quest for enlightenment will touch and inspire all readers.

About the Author:

Kumari Ellis's time as a nurse on an AIDS unit inspired her to visit India on a spiritual quest, where she stayed for six years. Originally from England, she now works as a community nurse in Australia. She is a mother of two who writes in her spare time. Tracing the moon recently won the Next Generation Indie publishing award.