The Yoga Teacher

This novel of a British woman’s decision to ditch her job and devote herself to yoga is “drolly funny…a winning depiction of a modern spiritual quest” (Kirkus Reviews).

Grace is a pharmaceutical rep, making good money visiting doctors to pitch her company’s latantidepressant, a job that’s been getting sort of…depressing. So is her long-term relationship, which has been slowly fizzling out. The one thing that makes her feel better, that allows her to transcend her unsatisfying life, is yoga class.

Then, inspired by a conversation with Dr. James, a physician interested in Eastern medicine, Grace decides to pursue a new path as a yoga teacher. After a trip to California to study at the White Lotus Foundation, she returns to London to start her new life. But teacher training did not prepare her for the motley crew of students she encounters—the octogenarian industrialist desperate for distraction; the supermodel who indulges yogic aspirations when she tires of kabbalah; the American film star who uses yoga classes to conceal a scandalous affair. Her one solace comes from her correspondence with Dr. James—now in Vietnam on a quest of his own.

Both inspiring and hilarious, The Yoga Teacher gently skewers our preference for a quick-fix nirvana over the rigor of practice—as it follows one woman’s search for love and meaning in a world numbed by materialism and psychotropic drugs.

“Gray portrays the world of Westernized yoga, from its true disciples to spandex-wrapped poseurs, in this uplifting tale of starting over…an inspiration for anyone who’s ever yearned to pursue a dream.”—Publishers Weekly