Lochan Sharma has faint memories of Nepal. 

He knows he used to run in the halls of the school his dad worked at and that he was enrolled in classes quite young. 

His family helps him stitch together the fabric of the life he left – his sister reminds him of a bridge they visited; at home in Concord, the melodies of Nepali music transport him back. 

Leaving Nepal at age four meant leaving behind family, friends and murky memories as his family immigrated to New Hampshire.

Now, Sharma is sharing his story through a fictional character, Samir, in a young adult novel, Go Home, co-written with author Terry Farish. Through the published work, he’s reconnecting with his Nepali upbringing, 7,250 miles away. 

“I am American but I am Nepali. It’s not a clear line," he said. “I wasn’t born here, but I don’t have very many memories from where I am originally from.” 

Go Home is set on New Hampshire’s Seacoast and follows the lives of three teenagers – Olive, Gabe and Samir. While Olive and Gabe have grown up together in the  Granite State, Samir is a Bhutanese Nepali refugee and new to the area, a familiar narrative for families in Concord. 

Through the lens of these teenagers, Farish, 77, and Sharma, 19, explore questions of identity, belonging and community – alongside conflict that mimics current rhetoric around immigration, as Gabe struggles to accept Samir, and Olive is caught in the crossfire between a new friend and her boyfriend. 

In building the characters, Sharma and Farish pulled threads from their own lives. Sharma, who graduated from Concord High School in 2021, watched his classmates find their own voices, politically and personally as they got older. He wove that together with stories from his own family, who left Nepal and scattered across the globe.

“It was creating a character that was inspired by me, but also not just exactly me,” he said. “What I ended up doing was just picking up traits from people with the same, similar type of background, friends, relatives.” 

In Olive and Gabe, Farish drew inspiration from people she also knows – whose political beliefs can run counter to their personal warmth. 

“I know many, many people who would not be welcoming to newcomers, but have a heart of gold in other ways,” she said. “I think most people are very complicated, not either always virtuous and not always evil in their intentions or their actions.”

While Farish is a seasoned author, penning several children’s books and other novels, the collaboration is Sharma’s first. And something he never thought he’d do, until Farish approached him about the project. 

In the summer of 2020, Farish and Sharma’s family sat in their Concord backyard, as Farish talked through the idea for this young adult novel that centered around a Nepali dancer. 

Farish had met Sharma’s parents years prior, through a writing workshop. They also both knew Johanna Young, a former English as a second language teacher at Ascentria who helped Nepali-speaking Bhutanese families when they resettled in Laconia and Concord. She died in 2021 and Farish dedicated the book to her. 

While Sharma liked to write, he never thought his name would be published on the front cover of a book. That was until his father encouraged him to work with Farish, igniting a four-year partnership. 

At the outset, he thought about how he’s often turned to movies, books and music to understand different cultures and how he hoped his work could contribute to other’s understanding. 

“I just wanted to be part of the piece of media, the book, that showed the Nepali experience and what it was like for me growing up,” he said. 

For the most part, that experience was easy. 

He felt that the presence of other Nepali students at Concord High School helped to fit in socially and bridge racial divides in a predominately white city. 

At the same time, he felt a push and pull. 

“It was that pressure that because these other people are from the same region, should I be spending more time with them just or be more connected to my culture?” he said. “It was just a balancing act, of I want to fit in in America, but also I do not want to be estranged from my family." 

He noticed as his Nepali vocabulary got worse, he preferred to speak English at home.

As a sophomore at Keene State College, he’s learning languages again – German and Japanese alongside his Nepali and Hindi – while also studying biology in hopes of going to medical school. 

He’s also met international students who talk freely about their impressions of New Hampshire. 

“It’s nice having full-on conversations about how they feel being in a different place, how they feel trying to fit in,” he said. “It’s been interesting to me, especially to meet people who are from the same place I am, but are very different in their experience and how they got here.” 

These personal journeys, from one place to another, are also the genesis of Farish’s interest. Her first job was through the Red Cross in Vietnam during the war. When she returned to the United States, she watched Vietnamese immigrants start over alongside her, building a new life in an unfamiliar place. 

“It was very emotional to see them here, raising their families after seeing them in devastation in Vietnam,” she said. “So I’ve always been in awe of people who have made journeys out of tyranny, out of war, to come here.” 

With the book published, Farish envisions developing a dialogue about decision-making and conflict for high school students. Together, the pair will speak about their collaboration to write Go Home next weekend at the New Hampshire Book Festival.

If you go

The New Hampshire Book Festival will be held Friday, Oct. 4 and Saturday, Oct. 5 at the Capitol Center for the Arts on South Main Street in Concord.

Lochan Sharma and Terry Farish will speak together on Saturday in a panel discussion about co-authoring work, titled Two Pens are Better than One at 3:40 pm. The event will take place on the KidLit Stage outside the Capitol Center for the Arts. 

For more information, go to www.nhbookfestival.org.

Michaela Towfighi can be reached at mtowfighi@cmonitor.com.