Where the Cobbled Path Leads

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Where the Cobbled Path Leads is a folk fantasy novel, interweaving fantasy fiction with Naga spirit stories and folklore.

Eleven-year-old Vime is struggling to come to terms with the demise of her beloved mother. She has a special place she frequents-a cobbled footpath near her house which leads to a forest. On the day of her mother's death anniversary, not wanting to return home, Vime follows the cobbled footpath all the way to the deep end of the woods and discovers that the trail leads to a magnificent tree. She falls asleep under it only to wake up and find that the footpath has disappeared. Tei, a forest spirit, helps her relocate the missing pathway.

Vime is soon to discover that this tree is no ordinary tree. It is a portal between the human and spirit world, and Vime keeps finding her way back to it. Distressed that her father might remarry, she decides to leave her earthly life and join her mother in the spiritual world. As she travels to, from and through these realms, she understands what it is to embrace and survive grief, and what it means to surrender herself to these old spirits, not all of whom are good.

AVINUO KIRE is a writer and teacher from Kohima, Nagaland. She has authored The Power to Forgive and Other Stories (2015), The Last Light of Glory Days and Other Stories (2021), a collection of poetry, Where Wildflowers Grow (2015), and co-authored an anthology of oral narratives titled Naga Heritage Centre People Stories: Volume One (2016). Avinuo currently teaches English at Kohima College.