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

Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 2011

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

“A Note on the Crisis in Nepal” and Prologue

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5 and Afterword

Key Figures

Themes

Index of Terms

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Key Figures

Conor Grennan

Conor Grennan is an American author and founder of Next Generation Nepal, a nonprofit that seeks to reunite trafficked Nepalese children with their families. Grennan volunteered in Nepal between 2004 and 2007. In 2010, Grennan published Little Princes: One Man’s Promise to Bring Home the Lost Children of Nepal, a memoir about his time and work in Nepal. The book was a New York Times best seller and a #1 international best-selling book. In addition to Little Princes, Grennan published a young-adult fiction book, The Hadley Academy for the Improbably Gifted, in 2019.

Grennan is a white American man who first travels to Nepal in 2004. Intent on having an experience that will impress his friends, Grennan undergoes the most significant transformation in the memoir as he develops a deep attachment to the children living at the orphanage where he has volunteered. At the outset, he sees Nepal and the Little Princes orphanage as a three-month pitstop before establishing a different, better life somewhere else. By the end of the book, however, Nepal and its lost children are at the center of his daily life, professional plans, and heart. After that first volunteering experience, Grennan returns three times to Nepal to help care for the children and to help find their families. In his third and longest stay, he founds a nonprofit called Next Generation Nepal (NGN) and opens a separate children’s home he names Dhaulagiri House.

Before his decision to volunteer in Nepal, Grennan attended the University of Virginia and the NYU Stern School of Business, where he is now Dean of Students for the MBA program. He is currently married to Liz Flanagan, an American lawyer who appears as a central character in Little Princes. They have two children and live in Connecticut. You can read more about Grennan at conorgrennan.com and Next Generation Nepal at nextgenerationnepal.org.

Farid

Farid is a fellow volunteer already working at the Little Princes Children’s Home when Grennan first arrives in 2004. A French man of Algerian descent, Farid grew up in a foster home in France, which may account for his interest in helping the Little Princes. In 2004, Farid is in his early 20s, soft-spoken, and insecure about his English. During his time in Nepal, Grennan watches Farid turn to Buddhism.

Farid is Grennan’s closest ally and confidant in Nepal, a partner in the author’s search for the seven lost children. He also helps Grennan found and manage Dhaulagiri House. Like Liz Flanagan, Farid’s calm presence and grounded demeanor guide Grennan and provide him a strong foundation in the country. While Liz Flanagan is the object of Grennan’s desire, Farid is the partner who helps to make the entire project possible.

Golkka

Golkka is a man from Humla who develops a large child-trafficking network during the civil war. Preying on poor families who fear the Maoists will take their children, Golkka develops a scheme where he demands money from the parents in exchange for taking their children to Kathmandu to be cared for and educated. However, once the children arrive in Kathmandu, Golkka makes them sit on the street to garner tips from tourists, sells them into slavery, or finds some other way to profit from them. Most of the children that Grennan cares for in Dhaulagiri House and the Little Princes Children’s Home were originally trafficked by Golkka.

Although Grennan never meets Golkka face-to-face, he does see Golkka from a distance during his first trip to Nepal. Golkka and his network of Nepali allies lurk throughout the memoir as a dark, sinister presence. Golkka can easily tip the scales between safety and danger, meaning he is a constant source of stress and anger for Grennan. In the book, Golkka is never caught, reprimanded, or imprisoned for his crimes.

Liz Flanagan

Liz is a white American woman working as lawyer in New York City. After noticing a story about Grennan’s Next Generation Nepal in a newspaper, she emails him directly. From their earliest correspondence, Grennan feels a strong connection to Liz because she is equally invested in caring for orphaned children abroad. Even more important, Liz believes that Grennan’s goal of reuniting Humla’s lost children with their parents is not only possible but even probable. She encourages the author from a distance, becoming one of his closest friends and confidants. Like nobody else, Liz pacifies his doubts.

Before ever meeting in person, Grennan begins to fall in love with Liz. “Liz’s emails were like kindling, sparks of inspiration a dark week,” he writes (137). Her blonde hair, which he mentions often in the text, becomes something of a beacon during dark times. Liz makes multiple trips to visit Grennan and the children in Nepal, each one sealing her future more closely to his. In 2007, Grennan proposes to Liz, and she accepts. Though Liz and Grennan make an attempt to move Liz to Nepal to help continue the work with the children, it eventually becomes too difficult, and the couple decides to move back to the United States, where they settle and have children of their own while continuing to raise funds for NGN.