Bone Mountain - Softcover

Eliot Pattison

4.29

1,026 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0712673806 ISBN 13: 9780712673808

Publisher: Century, 2003

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Which will come first: enlightenment or death? When disgraced former inspector, Shan Tao Yun joins a group of reverent Tibetans returning a sacred artefact to its home, it seems he has at last found the peace he has struggled for since leaving prison. What starts as a spiritual pilgrimage, however, quickly turns into a desperate flight through the Tibetan wilderness as the outlawed monk who guides them is murdered and Sham discovers that the artefact has recently been stolen from the Chinese army. But why is the army so desperate to find the artefact entrusted to Shan? Why is an aged medicine lama being stalked by government agents? Why has an American woman, a geologist for an oil company, abandoned the project and fled into the mountains? Shan discovers not answers, but only new mysteries as he is drawn to such unexpected places as the raucous headquarters base of the Western oil venture and a monastery that seems more attuned to the teachings of the party than those of Buddha. And the further he travels into the mountains, the more Shan realises that what is at stake is not only justice but the spiritual survival of those who have joined his strange quest. At the heart of Pattison's powerful tale is a story of a brave, oppressed people who have learned to endure by drawing strength from their land and their rich spiritual traditions.

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Review:

Shan, an ex-police inspector who spent years in a Chinese prison, is the intriguing protagonist of this literary thriller set in the stunning and rarely portrayed landscape of modern Tibet. While Shan's search for a stolen sacred relic in a Himalayan valley whose underground wealth is the center of explorations by a Sino-American oil consortium provides the novel's central plot, the real crime, Beijing's efforts to eradicate the remnants of Tibet's spiritual and cultural heritage, is more fully and engagingly portrayed. The central motif of the novel--Shan's travels with a salt caravan, at first guarding and then searching for the relic after it mysteriously disappears-- becomes a journey toward enlightenment whose denouement is more than worth the trip for readers who opt to suspend disbelief and travel with Shan and his companions to the centuries-old cave of the medicine lamas. Bone Mountain is a rich, complicated, and original exploration into the extraordinary power of belief, faith, and the triumph of the human spirit, as complex and compelling as Tibet itself. --Jane Adams

About the Author:

Eliot Pattison's numerous books and articles on international policy issues have been published on three continents. He is a world traveller and frequent visitor to China. The Skull Mantra, his first work of fiction, won him the Edgar Award for Best First Novel from the Mystery Writers of America. Bone Mountain is Pattison's third novel featuring former Beijing Investigator, Shan Tao Yun.

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