Description
The High Mountains of Portugal by Yann Martel is an imaginative literary novel told in three interconnected stories spanning much of the 20th century. In 1904 Lisbon, Tomás discovers an old journal containing clues to a mysterious artefact and sets off across Portugal in one of Europe’s earliest automobiles to find it. Decades later, a Portuguese pathologist becomes entangled in the consequences of Tomás’s search, while another fifty years on, a grieving Canadian senator retreats to his ancestral village accompanied by an unlikely companion: a chimpanzee.
Blending a historical quest, ghost story and contemporary fable, Martel explores grief, love, loss, faith and the strange connections that bind people across generations. The novel moves between mystery, humour and philosophical reflection as its three stories gradually converge.
This book would appeal to readers who enjoy literary fiction, unusual narratives, philosophical themes, historical settings and stories that combine realism with elements of the fantastical.
