A literary adventure of the highest order from one of Canada's finest writers: Every Lost Country combines the climbing suspense and intrigue of John Krakauer's Into Thin Air with the literary quality of Elizabeth Hay.
Every Lost Country is inspired by an incident that happened in 2006 on the border between Nepal and Chinese-occupied Tibet. A group of mountain climbers saw Chinese border guards pursuing and killing Tibetans fleeing into Nepal. The climbers allegedly debated whether to report the attack or continue with their expedition. Steven Heighton uses this incident as a starting point for a novel of suspense about loyalty, human failings, and what love requires. Sophie Book, the daughter of the expedition's doctor, is sitting on the border watching the sunset over Tibet when she spots a group of Tibetan refugees being pursued by Chinese borderguards and fleeing toward her up the mountain. When the shooting starts, her father, unable to stay away when somebody needs help, rushes towards the ensuing melee, ignoring the objections of Lawson, the expedition leader, who doesn't want to get involved and spoil his chance to be the first climber to summit Kyatruk. Lawson is further enraged when Amaris, a Chinese-Canadian filmmaker recording the expedition, joins Book with her camcorder in hand. When the surviving Tibetan refugees are captured just short of the border, Lawson and Sophie look on helplessly as Book and Amaris are taken away with them. From that point, the novel follows Lawson up the mountain, Sophie in pursuit of her father, and the fugitives as they try to escape their captors.
Genre: Literary Fiction
Every Lost Country is inspired by an incident that happened in 2006 on the border between Nepal and Chinese-occupied Tibet. A group of mountain climbers saw Chinese border guards pursuing and killing Tibetans fleeing into Nepal. The climbers allegedly debated whether to report the attack or continue with their expedition. Steven Heighton uses this incident as a starting point for a novel of suspense about loyalty, human failings, and what love requires. Sophie Book, the daughter of the expedition's doctor, is sitting on the border watching the sunset over Tibet when she spots a group of Tibetan refugees being pursued by Chinese borderguards and fleeing toward her up the mountain. When the shooting starts, her father, unable to stay away when somebody needs help, rushes towards the ensuing melee, ignoring the objections of Lawson, the expedition leader, who doesn't want to get involved and spoil his chance to be the first climber to summit Kyatruk. Lawson is further enraged when Amaris, a Chinese-Canadian filmmaker recording the expedition, joins Book with her camcorder in hand. When the surviving Tibetan refugees are captured just short of the border, Lawson and Sophie look on helplessly as Book and Amaris are taken away with them. From that point, the novel follows Lawson up the mountain, Sophie in pursuit of her father, and the fugitives as they try to escape their captors.
Genre: Literary Fiction
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