Little Princes: One Man's Promise to Bring Home the Lost Children of Nepal

Little Princes: One Man's Promise to Bring Home the Lost Children of Nepal - Conor Grennan

This is probably one of the best memoirs I have ever read. Part of that has to do with how honest the author is throughout. Little Princes tells the story of the authors creation of Next Generation Nepal, a  nonprofit organization that helps reunite the children of Nepal with their families after the civil war. He starts out admitting straight up that he only volunteered to go to Nepal, so he wouldn't appear to be selfish or irresponsible and how he couldn't wait for his time to be up so he could travel around the world without feeling guilty, and oddly enough I respect him for that.

"I needed this volunteering stint to sound as challenging as possible to my friends and family back home."

"But there was something about volunteering in a Third World orphanage at the outset of my trip that would squash any potential criticism. Who would dare begrudge me my year of fun after doing something like that?"

He doesn't pull any punches in this memoir, several times he calls out his younger self for being selfish and irrational. When he first meets the families of the children back at the NGN house, he greets them at first with anger before one of his traveling companions points out, that he is speaking from a  place of privilege -- he has never had to live through a civil war. And he has never had to make the horrible decision to keep his children at home, where they would be conscripted, or send them away with a
stranger in the hopes that they would be safe. This is what memoirs should be in my opinion, a story of growth and learning. I started there, thinking that, and I ended up here, thinking this. These are the people who helped me make me who I am today.