Discussion Guide for GO HOME, a novel by Terry Farish and Lochan
March 29, 2025
The Story
Olive Ronan is a New Hampshire girl, born and raised. Samir Paudel moves to her town the summer they are both sixteen. He brings experience of another world passed down to him by his Bhutanese-Nepali family. Also, enter Gabe, the boy Olive loves, whose motorcycle is emblazoned with, “America is full. Go home.” The three teens become torn by loyalties to family and beliefs about who belongs in their town. Go Home is a timely and provocative story about immigration and prejudice. It’s also a girl’s journey into her own.
The Authors
Terry Farish and Lochan Sharma spent four years writing Go Home. Lochan was born in Nepal after his family was exiled from their home country, Bhutan. Now the family lives in Concord, New Hampshire and he’s studying at Keene State College. Terry writes novels in Atlantic Heights, a small neighborhood on the New Hampshire seacoast. Her books have won many awards. The book she’s most known for is The Good Braider set in Maine and South Sudan. Since her early work in Việt Nam, she has written about the migration of people across continents and cultures.
Ambika Shama, Terry Farish, and Lochan Sharma. Ambika Sharma, Lochan’s mother, Hari Sharma, Lochan’s father, and Lochana Sharma, his sister all contributed to create the novel.
The Story of Migration from Bhutan
The young man who would become co-author Lochan Sharma’s grandfather built a farm house in Southern Bhutan. He was ethnically Nepali and had left Nepal because Bhutan needed workers. They needed metal workers and people to work in the cardamon fields. Many Nepali-speaking people came and built farms on the hillsides in the southern and western part of Bhutan. They were called Lhotshampas, meaning people of the south in Dzongkha, the language of Bhutan.
Dzongkha is a Sino-Tibetan language written in Tibetan script. Bishnu’s Nepali language is an Indo-Aryan language and is derived from Sanskrit. (Asianstudies.cornell.edu) Here’s a map to help you see Nepal which is to the north of India; Bhutan is to the east of Nepal.
Worldmap.com
Praja Shapkota is Lochan’s great uncle and a scholar who studied at SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry at Syracuse University. He was a source of historical facts for the authors about what happened to the Lhotshampa in Bhutan and why they had to leave their homes.
“By 1989,” Dr. Shapkota said, “the government established the ‘One Nation, One People Policy.’ ” Under this policy, they were forced to speak, and study, in the Dzongkha language. They were required to become Buddhist and dress in the traditional clothing of Bhutan. They lost their land, farms, and citizenship. “In 1990, demonstrations against the Bhutanese caused many Nepali-speaking leaders and activists to leave the country for fear or incarceration. By 1993, more than 100,000 had fled or been expelled. The refugees spent 17 – 25 years in United Nations camps established in eastern Nepal.”
After 2008, eight countries – U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the UK, Norway, Denmark and the Netherlands – began resettling Bhutanese Nepali refugees in their countries. By then Lochan was a young boy. In 2009, he and his family made the journey to resettle in New Hampshire.
Reviews
“Go Home shows how teenage characters are grappling with some of the same questions igniting the political debate around immigration.” – Boston Globe
“Beautiful and powerful! Highly recommended.” — Margarita Engle, Newbury Honor-winning author of Surrender Tree
“Farish and Sharma bring important current social issues to light in Go Home.” *Highly Recommended, 5-star review – CM: Canadian Review of Materials
“One of the most striking moments in the book is Samir learning to swim — not just crossing a river, but confronting fear and proving his determination to build a place for himself and his family in a new world.” — Narendra Sharma, Elizabeth City University, North Carolina
“The teens discover a deep connection through warm moments such as Olive’s teaching Samir to swim. Meaty and complex…a character-driven tale.” — Kirkus Reviews
“GO HOME is one of the bravest books I’ve read…Co-authors Lochan Sharma and Terry Farish entangle their characters in misconceptions of immigration and then ask those characters to find their way out. This is a book for this exact moment.” –- Kirsten Cappy, I’m Your Neighbor Books
Questions and Ideas for Discussion
Go Home is told in Olive’s and Samir’s voices in alternating chapters. How does this narrative style contribute to your understanding of the novel?
What does Samir imagine is American—in the refugee camp and once in New Hampshire? What does he observe at the River’s Tale Café about American businesses? What does he learn from his father? What does it mean to be American to you?
Samir has a small gold Ganesha, a Hindu god with an elephant head. Ganesha symbolizes success and learning. Samir always wears the Ganesha on a chain around his neck. Olive believes the white horse on the island is magical and powerful. What purpose do these amulets play in the novel? Is there an animal or other symbol that represents a strength to you in your culture?
What are the growing views about the Paudels, especially about Samir, that Olive confronts as the book unfolds?
Gabe’s best friend died of a drug overdose. What do you think the novel is saying about loss and grief and how those deep emotions affect what happens in the summer the story unfolds?
Gabe is loyal to his family and others in his community. Do you see evidence that Gabe tries to be loyal to his family and that his own beliefs are not the same as theirs?
If you could talk to one character in Go Home, what would you want to say to them?
What does Hajurba mean when he says “a horse is good luck. They know how to find the way home.” How do you think it relates to what home is for any of the main characters?
The novel explores people’s need to belong in a place. Can you describe a moment when you felt like you belonged in a place? What did you experience that made you feel at home?
The shadow side of belonging is a term used to explore a conflict between belonging to a family or community while that belonging makes a person feel they have to disown part of who they are. Sometimes a relationship can feed a person or suppress them. Do you see a shadow side of belonging in Go Home?
How do you come to understand new people or people who are different from you who come to your school or community?
Resources to learn more
Bhutanese Refugees: Life in the Camps ”Many people forget that despite losing their citizenship and property, refugees still guard their traditions, customs and dignity.’’ An in-depth website documenting the accounts of Bhutanese refugees.
If Each Comes Halfway, Meeting Tamang Women in Nepalby Kathryn S. March, Cornell University Press, 2002. Kathryn March lived among Nepali women, learned their language, recorded their stories, and present them and their photographs in this book as the women and girls wanted to be represented. She collaborated with them. This study was greatly important to me and to my understanding of the cultures of Nepal, and neighboring cultures of Tibet and Bhutan.
The Shortest History of Migration, by Ian Goldin, The Experiment, 2025. “To move is human. Migration, therefore, is the story of humanity.” Goldin’s account is the big-picture I seek to share with young readers through the small moments of “cultural exchange” in my novels. Brilliantly, and in 270 pages, he tells the expansive story of migration, which is a “portrait of humanity.”
“Poetry and Uncertainty”by Jane Hirshfield, The American Poetry Review, Nov. Dec. 2005. Dr. Lisa Pinkerton from Ohio State University and teacher, Meghan Kuehnle presented a workshop at NCTE, 2024, on uncertainty in literature as a source of hope. I offer this article they reference as a support for engaging in discussion around this novel (not a poem) with uncertainty and openness to a breadth of interpretations. I’ll offer further resources from Meghan, who is called “the queen of poetic uncertainty.” If you’re interested in this topic, contact me and I’ll send you more resources.
