NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “Fifteen years after The Life of Pi, Yann Martel is taking us on another long journey. Fans of his Man Booker Prize–winning novel will recognize familiar themes from that seafaring phenomenon, but the itinerary in this imaginative new book is entirely fresh. . . . Martel’s writing has never been more charming.”—Ron Charles, The Washington PostNAMED ONE OF THE BEST … Post
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NPR
In Lisbon in 1904, a young man named Tomás discovers an old journal. It hints at the existence of an extraordinary artifact that—if he can find it—would redefine history. Traveling in one of Europe’s earliest automobiles, he sets out in search of this strange treasure.
Thirty-five years later, a Portuguese pathologist devoted to the murder mysteries of Agatha Christie finds himself at the center of a mystery of his own and drawn into the consequences of Tomás’s quest.
Fifty years on, a Canadian senator takes refuge in his ancestral village in northern Portugal, grieving the loss of his beloved wife. But he arrives with an unusual companion: a chimpanzee. And there the century-old quest will come to an unexpected conclusion.
The High Mountains of Portugal—part quest, part ghost story, part contemporary fable—offers a haunting exploration of great love and great loss. Filled with tenderness, humor, and endless surprise, it takes the reader on a road trip through Portugal in the last century—and through the human soul.
Praise for The High Mountains of Portugal
“Just as ambitious, just as clever, just as existential and spiritual [as Life of Pi] . . . a book that rewards your attention . . . an excellent book club choice.”—San Francisco Chronicle
“There’s no denying the simple pleasures to be had in The High Mountains of Portugal.”—Chicago Tribune
“Charming . . . Most Martellian is the boundless capacity for parable. . . . Martel knows his strengths: passages about the chimpanzee and his owner brim irresistibly with affection and attentiveness.”—The New Yorker
“A rich and rewarding experience . . . [Martel] spins his magic thread of hope and despair, comedy and pathos.”—USA Today
“I took away indelible images from High Mountains, enchanting and disturbing at the same time. . . . As whimsical as Martel’s magic realism can be, grief informs every step of the book’s three journeys. In the course of the novel we burrow ever further into the heart of an ape, pure and threatening at once, our precursor, ourselves.”—NPR
“Refreshing, surprising and filled with sparkling moments of humor and insight.”—The Dallas Morning News
“We’re fortunate to have brilliant writers using their fiction to meditate on a paradox we need urgently to consider—the unbridgeable gap and the unbreakable bond between human and animal, our impossible self-alienation from our world.”—Ursula K. Le Guin, The Guardian
“[Martel packs] his inventive novel with beguiling ideas. What connects an inept curator to a haunted pathologist to a smitten politician across more than seventy-five years is the author’s ability to conjure up something uncanny at the end.”—The Boston Globe
“A fine home, and story, in which to find oneself.”—Minneapolis Star Tribune
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I struggled through much of this book, some parts were good but others seemed to take a long time and got off track.
Life of Pi this book is not. I really did not know what to expect with this book but what I got I could not have imagined. There were parts of the book that were clearly interesting; however, being interesting does not equate to being enjoyable. I can’t decide if the author was going through an existential crisis and was trying to figure out whether or not he believed in what he was writing or if he was just trying to fool himself into believing it.
My overall impression of the book is that it’s a type of allegory or parable told in three parts, which at one point in the book becomes a deep discussion occurring between two characters, ultimately comparing the parables of Christ to Agatha Christie novels. It is this part of the book, the second part, that I found most interesting. Aside from an extremely unusual autopsy, the second part is the most worthy of conversation. I am not sure if this comparison of the gospels to Agatha Christie novels is genius or insulting. If Agatha Christie was a Christian and was influenced by the gospels when writing her many mystery novels then this part of the book could be considered an homage to her work and or the influences of the gospel on stories in general. If however she was not a Christian then I’m not really sure what the point the author was making here. I haven’t decided if this is a good thing or a bad thing but like I stated before it’s very interesting. Overall this second part of the book seems to be an attempt by the author to explain or understand his own belief or disbelief in Christianity. Perhaps he’s a big fan of Agatha Christie and is caught up in some fanboy-like worship of her work? As a Christian this is a little unsettling but ultimately interesting. For anyone who’s not a Christian, I have no idea how or if this section of the story will affect them.
The first part of the book was my least favorite part of the book and the point at which I almost threw my Kindle across the room, but then I realize there are other precious stories on that device that I do not wish to harm. I did not like the character of Thomas. Despite the grief that he was going through, I did not feel sorry for him. His choice to walk backwards as a way of expressing his grief seemed awkward at first but after a while it just became silly. It seemed as though grief somehow made Thomas an imbecile; he was unable to think logically or behave in any type of responsible manner; he took no responsibility for anything that he did. Despite the sad things that happened to him, everything he did was a conscious choice, even the choice to pretend he didn’t kill someone.
On top of being riddled with bad decision making, Thomas decided that God was to blame for his grief and goes on a journey to somehow break down the entire Christian faith with some idol that he believes is out there, an idol that’s going to shake up the whole world. It is this idol that really gets me angry. The idea that some priest finally realizes how horrific the slave trade is, and in rebellion against a religious system that appears to be encouraging and thriving on perpetuating that system, decides to create a figure of Christ in the form of a chimpanzee is absolutely ridiculous and insulting. This priest decides to dehumanize Christ instead of making any effort to fix, or at least change, a system clearly not following its very own principles.
(I almost want to give the author credit for pointing out the irony that exists in the US, a nation defined by democracy while currently struggling to keep its democracy and treat all its citizens as equal, but he’s not from the US and probably doesn’t care about US civil issues).
This notion of the Christ ape is a rip on the debate between creation and evolution as though this is a conflict solely between Christians and non-Christians. It’s insulting to not even take into consideration that there are many other faiths and philosophies of life that do not 100% buy into the ideas of creation or evolution. This is a debate that has many areas to consider but this book is taking nothing else into consideration. It’s insulting for an ape to be delegated the role of being used as a tool for religious or anti-religious propaganda without clear explanation- this is not a topic suitable for a new-age parable. Why can’t an ape just be an ape. If you want to be upset at how horrible slavery is, then be upset about how horrible slavery is. Don’t deface someone’s religion in blame. There are many things about Christianity that people are constantly struggling with and arguing about and trying to understand, but it almost seems as though the author is trying to say that Christianity is the reason that the American and international slave trade existed and that Christianity must somehow be punished for it.
It is absolutely ridiculous and offensive that a white man from a wealthy family or a disillusioned white priest would compare their personal woes to the existence of an enslaved black person. And jumping ahead a little to the fact that the third part of the book was my least disliked part, I am also deeply annoyed that the author is able to show more humanity towards the treatment of an ape then he was able to show towards the slaves described in the first part of the book. A white man can bring an ape into his home, but a white priest can only read scriptures to brutalized slaves dying in a cage.
So in the last part of the book, which was for me the most tolerable part, though not as interesting as the second part, we see a sweet exchange between a man and an ape that reminded me of the nostalgia of reading Curious George as a kid.. So I guess this goes to show that human beings can be kind to animals and go out of their way to improve the lives of animals, but not other human beings that don’t have the same skin color as them.
Then there’s this whole mythological side of the story where weird things happen, such as a golden child bringing fertility to women or finding several animals inside a person’s body, and all other kinds of silliness. The point of me reading this book is that it was supposed to be an example of description for my book club. From that standpoint, it is a great example of description. The descriptions in this book were presented in a very vivid way. Some of the descriptions were perfect. Some of the descriptions were absolutely over the top and caused the story to drag. In any case, if you struggle with description and want some ideas about ways to describe things, you could read this book to get some ideas. And that’s all I have to say about this book and descriptions.
I wanted to like this book but I really did not. I won’t go so far as to say I hated the book but it did make me very angry. The only reason I finished this book is because I selected this book for my book club and felt a responsibility to do so. I am deeply disappointed in this book.Perhaps if I wasn’t a black woman living in America, the descendent of slaves during a time when Black Lives Matter is still for some reason a debate, I might have a different impression of this book. But this is my reality and this is how I feel after reading this book. I can see someone else liking this book if they aren’t thinking too deeply about it or happen to live a very charmed life with no religious or faith-base concerns to consider.
I will not be recommending this book to anyone and have nothing against anyone who reads this and likes it. They are not me and I am not them
There are three novellas making up this book, centered around the High Mountains of Portugal. For the life of me, I cannot tell you why I continued to read this book. It took me about 6 months. Novella No. 1, Homeless, is the story of Tomás, who walks backwards after the death of his wife and child. He borrows a car to search for an artifact which would change history. This was tedious reading of pages and pages of description about the car, about driving where there are no roads (early 1900’s), camping in the wilderness. Nevertheless, I persevered, perhaps only because I really enjoyed the writing style and had to see if Tomás was going to come out of this alive (no spoilers, but Tomás is a bit of a klutz even when not walking backward). While trying to make sense of all the imagery and symbolism, I kept rereading sections, thinking somehow I was missing the big picture.
After a hiatus of a few months, I started on Novella No. 2, Homeward. This was nothing if not bizarre. A woman, from the High Mountains of Portugal, brings her husband’s body to a pathologist in order for him to tell her how he lived. His body is full of strange things, and I challenged myself to suspend belief and continue reading. The story ends and again the big picture was beyond my comprehension.
So, a few months later, on to Novella No. 3, Home. This also takes place in the High Mountains of Portugal, and connects the three novellas together. This is the story of Peter, a Canadian senator, who adopts an ape after his wife passes away. He and Odo, the ape, move to, you guessed it, the High Mountains of Portugal, where his family roots are.
The writing does draw you in, makes you think, but there are no answers to what any of it means. After the third story, I thought perhaps happiness is where you find it, and we should live in the moment. Too simplistic, I think. Other reviewers have given faith as the story line, but I didn’t see that. The other is how people deal with grief, as each of the central characters lost someone they loved which sent them on a quest (an artifact, answers, peace).
Perhaps this needs to be read in pieces and discussed with a book club. If anyone has any insight to share, I would love to hear your views!
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It drug sometimes but was very interesting and got better as the book went on. Loved the ending and the themes that ran through it
It started out slowly, so I had my doubts at first, but then the story and characters bloomed into a memorable story
Very disappointing after The Life of Pi
Give it a try, you may like it. For me, parts were good and others left me flat though I must say it was very original.
Interesting in parts, but overall not a favorite of mine. Perhaps I need some help to appreciate it like I did with Life of Pi.
Not what I expected from the author of The Life of Pi
Some good parts, but did not keep my attention
A different story line and characters but Just as enjoyable as Life of Pi.
A wonderful, thought provoking read that evokes another time and world, with intriguing characters, each on a quest for meaning in their own way. Historical settings that bring you to the somewhat misnamed place of the title. Magical realism at its finest. I really loved this book and its take on human nature and transcendence.
I read half of it. Uninspiring.
A little bit of Gabriel Garcia Martez, but mostly several generations of characters and how their lives interconnect. Beautifully written and highly original, you’ll love it.
fascinating and strange.
I was disappointed in this somewhat whimsical voyage in Portugal, as well as occasionally confused by its magical realism.
This has 3 stories in one and they are related, although not in obvious ways at first. Different. I wasn’t thrilled with it.
I have read all his books. The Life of Pi is the one I liked. This one was too strange for my taste.
Some of the book reminds me of Pan’s Labyrinth with its magical realism. I especially loved Part III about the man who buys a chimpanzee and moves to Portugal with it. Tying all three parts together was a little weak at the end, though…
This guy wrote The Life of Pi, so I knew it would be superb! There is no other book quite like it. The writer’s ability to draw the reader into the book is very, very good!