Overview

THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER Lost in Portugal. Lost to grief. With nothing but a chimpanzee. A man thrown backwards by heartbreak goes in search of an artefact that could unsettle history. A woman carries her husband to a doctor in a suitcase. A Canadian senator begins a new life, in a new country, in the company of a chimp called Odo. From these stories of journeying, of loss and faith, Yann Martel makes a novel unlike any other: moving, profound and magical. A New York Times Bestseller An Australian Independent Bookseller Bestseller #1 on The Globe & Mail's Bestseller List #1 on Toronto Star's Bestseller List #1 on Maclean's Bestseller List #1 on National Post's Bestseller List #1 on McNally Robinson's Bestseller List An ABA Indie Bestseller

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9780147522870

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Reviews

Pack your bags: 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, a rich mixture of sweetness that s not cloying and tragedy that s not melodramatic. . . . The High Mountains of Portugal attains an altitude from which we can see something quietly miraculous. Ron Charles, The Washington Post

Pack your bags: 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, a rich mixture of sweetness that s not cloying and tragedy that s not melodramatic. . . . The High Mountains of Portugal attains an altitude from which we can see something quietly miraculous. Ron Charles, The Washington Post 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. . . . [Martel s] semi-surreal, semi-absurdist mode is well suited to exploring the paradox. The moral and spiritual implications of his tale have, in the end, a quality of haunting tenderness. Ursula K. Le Guin, The Guardian Martel continues his quirky romance with ideas, using three interlocking novellas to chew over religious revelation, human mortality, and interspecies communication, among other notions. . . . [He] maintains his fascination with the porous borders between homo sapiens and other species. . . . [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 Highly imaginative . . . Martel s narrative wizardry connects three novellas set seven decades apart in the eponymous region of Portugal. . . . Martel is in a class by himself in acknowledging the tragic vicissitudes of life while celebrating wildly ridiculous contretemps that bring levity to the mystery of existence. Publishers Weekly (starred review) A remarkable novel. Maclean s The prose is sharp, comical, and carries a deeply poignant message: though religion may be one person s belief structure and another s laughing stock, it is important to humanity. The List His depiction of loss is raw and deeply affecting but it s the way in which he contextualises it within formal religion that gives this book an extra dimension. Martel s writing is enriched and amplified by the abundance and intricacy of his symbology (touching on Job, St. Peter, Doubting Thomas and the parables of Jesus) and his probing of religion s consolations. Martel is not in the business of providing us with answers, but through its odd, fabulous, deliberately oblique stories, his new novel does ask some big questions. The Telegraph (four stars) [An] extravagant smorgasbord of a novel . . . If fans of [ Life of Pi ] have been feeling deprived, they will be happy to know [that The High Mountains of Portugal ] deals in many of the same fundamental questions of life, love, family and faith. . . . At every turn Martel s deft observations and quiet compassion for human suffering shine through. The Saturday Paper From the Hardcover edition.

Author Information

Yann Martel is the author of Life of Pi, the global bestseller that won the 2002 Man Booker Prize (among other honors) and was adapted to the screen in the Oscar-winning film by Ang Lee. He is also the author of the short story collection The Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamatios, the novels Self and Beatrice and Virgil, and the nonfiction work 101 Letters to a Prime Minister. Born in Spain in 1963, Martel studied philosophy at Trent University, worked at odd jobs--tree planter, dishwasher, security guard--and traveled widely before turning to writing. He lives in Saskatoon, Canada, with the writer Alice Kuipers and their four children. From the Hardcover edition.

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