The High Mountains of Portugal
By Yann Martel
Knopf Canada
Hard Cover, 33 Pages
Penguinrandomhouse.ca
The latest offering by Yann Martel, author of Life of Pi, is a welcoming edition of fiction that weaves a series of lives that touch each other in various ways throughout the century.
In Lisbon in 1904, a young man named Tomas discovers an old journal, which he turns to as a way to distract himself from the death of his family. His obsession with the journal sends him on a journey of discovery.
Thirty-five years later, a Portuguese pathologist who enjoys reading Agatha Christie murder mysteries finds himself at the center of a murder mystery of his own, resulting from the consequences of Tomas’ quest.
Fifty years later, a Canadian senator drops out of his life and heads to his ancestral village in northern Portugal to grieve the loss of his wife. He takes with him an unusual companion, a chimpanzee. In his new home in Portugal, a century-old quest comes to its conclusion.
Martel does not disappoint in this novel where he tells a tale of humour, love, suffering, and understanding.
