Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Publication
Canongate Books (2016), Edition: Main
Description
Fiction. Literature. Historical Fiction. HTML: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 Post NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NPR In Lisbon in 1904, a young man named Tom�s 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 Tom�s�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.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member nikkinmichaels
Yann Martel's latest novel examines pretty much every universal theme you can think of — love, death, grief, human nature, evolution, the meaning of life (just to name a few) — not always in the most thrilling manner, but continually in ways at once profound, observantly funny, and deeply
Despite my dislike for LIFE OF PI, I jumped to read HIGH MOUNTAINS based on the premise, an apparent blend of magical realism, philosophy, and the endlessly popular multiple-and-interconnecting-narrative storytelling device (which I'm admittedly a huge fan of — thanks, David Mitchell!).
Martel's newest creation comprises three novella-length stories, titled "Homeless," "Homeward," and "Home." All are beautifully written, but I found the first repetitive and rather dull, aside from the few moments of glorious insight and the appropriated Robert Ardrey quote, "We are risen apes, not fallen angels." (I love that so much I actually want it tattooed on my body.)
I didn't care much for the second story either, although the bizarre end intrigued me much as the best short stories I've read have done.
The third story, though, changed my opinion of the book — and it's what made me give it four stars in the end (when I'd otherwise have gone with 2.5). Heartbreaking, tender, and strange, it possesses a sort of magnetic spell that brought me to tears and made me feel invested in the first two stories despite my relative apathy toward them individually.
If you're into the multiple-narrative thing — or if you're an animal lover or a fan of short stories — then give HIGH MOUNTAINS a shot. You (probably) won't regret it.
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sad.Despite my dislike for LIFE OF PI, I jumped to read HIGH MOUNTAINS based on the premise, an apparent blend of magical realism, philosophy, and the endlessly popular multiple-and-interconnecting-narrative storytelling device (which I'm admittedly a huge fan of — thanks, David Mitchell!).
Martel's newest creation comprises three novella-length stories, titled "Homeless," "Homeward," and "Home." All are beautifully written, but I found the first repetitive and rather dull, aside from the few moments of glorious insight and the appropriated Robert Ardrey quote, "We are risen apes, not fallen angels." (I love that so much I actually want it tattooed on my body.)
I didn't care much for the second story either, although the bizarre end intrigued me much as the best short stories I've read have done.
The third story, though, changed my opinion of the book — and it's what made me give it four stars in the end (when I'd otherwise have gone with 2.5). Heartbreaking, tender, and strange, it possesses a sort of magnetic spell that brought me to tears and made me feel invested in the first two stories despite my relative apathy toward them individually.
If you're into the multiple-narrative thing — or if you're an animal lover or a fan of short stories — then give HIGH MOUNTAINS a shot. You (probably) won't regret it.
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LibraryThing member BraveNewBks
Confession: I did not read Life of Pi. I meant to, I really did. A hardcover copy is sitting on my bookshelf gently castigating me as I write this.
So I have atoned for that lapse (which will someday be corrected) by taking a break from my Tournament of Books reading (11 down, 4.5 to go!) to read
Before you pick up this book, ask yourself if you can tolerate a bit of absurdism in your novels. If you can not only tolerate it, but actually delight in it, then this book is meant for you.
If you're not sure, consider the following: you, as a writer, have developed a character who is suffering from nearly insurmountable grief. As a consequence of that grief, he has withdrawn from the world in many ways. How do you visually represent the effects of grief to your readers?
If you are Yann Martel, you let your character begin to -- literally -- refuse to face the world. Your character will walk backwards through his town, throwing glances over his shoulder to help him avoid streetlights and mailboxes and other impediments. Does it not make more sense to face the elements -- the wind, the rain, the sun, the onslaught of insects, the glumness of strangers, the uncertainty of the future -- with the shield that is the back of one's head, the back of one's jacket, the seat of one's pants? These are our protection, our armour. They are meant to withstand the vagaries of fate.
If the whimsy and profundity of the man walking backward doesn't delight you (or worse, if it strikes you as silly and unrealistic and annoying), then you may want to choose a different book for your leisure reading. But if it does, then you are in for a treat.
In the first story of this triptych of linked stories, the backwards-facing man borrows an automobile from his uncle for an important journey. The trick, of course, is that these are the early days of automobiles, when the monsters require constant care and servicing, and most of the people in rural areas have never seen one. His desperate dislike of the beast that makes his journey possible makes for one of the most entertaining road trip stories I've ever read.
In the second story, we find a beautiful, detailed homage to Agatha Christie wrapped in the nearly fairy-tale-like fable of a pathologist who receives an unusual midnight visitor.
In the third and final story, we jump forward in time to visit a widowed Canadian senator who finds himself unexpectedly visiting a chimpanzee sanctuary in Oklahoma.
Though all three stories are different in pacing and style, three themes connect them. One, not surprisingly, is the location of the High Mountains of Portugal, which becomes an important setting in each. The second is the idea that walking backwards communicates a kind of unspeakable grief, and was a minor but dramatic element that captured me completely. The third, surprisingly, is the humanity of chimpanzees.
Yes, despite the wildly improbable combination, each story involves all three of these things. For me, it was an impressive and thoroughly enjoyable feat.
Note: I received a complimentary copy of this ebook from the publisher in exchange for my honest review.
So I have atoned for that lapse (which will someday be corrected) by taking a break from my Tournament of Books reading (11 down, 4.5 to go!) to read
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Yann Martel's latest novel. And boy, am I glad I did.Before you pick up this book, ask yourself if you can tolerate a bit of absurdism in your novels. If you can not only tolerate it, but actually delight in it, then this book is meant for you.
If you're not sure, consider the following: you, as a writer, have developed a character who is suffering from nearly insurmountable grief. As a consequence of that grief, he has withdrawn from the world in many ways. How do you visually represent the effects of grief to your readers?
If you are Yann Martel, you let your character begin to -- literally -- refuse to face the world. Your character will walk backwards through his town, throwing glances over his shoulder to help him avoid streetlights and mailboxes and other impediments. Does it not make more sense to face the elements -- the wind, the rain, the sun, the onslaught of insects, the glumness of strangers, the uncertainty of the future -- with the shield that is the back of one's head, the back of one's jacket, the seat of one's pants? These are our protection, our armour. They are meant to withstand the vagaries of fate.
If the whimsy and profundity of the man walking backward doesn't delight you (or worse, if it strikes you as silly and unrealistic and annoying), then you may want to choose a different book for your leisure reading. But if it does, then you are in for a treat.
In the first story of this triptych of linked stories, the backwards-facing man borrows an automobile from his uncle for an important journey. The trick, of course, is that these are the early days of automobiles, when the monsters require constant care and servicing, and most of the people in rural areas have never seen one. His desperate dislike of the beast that makes his journey possible makes for one of the most entertaining road trip stories I've ever read.
In the second story, we find a beautiful, detailed homage to Agatha Christie wrapped in the nearly fairy-tale-like fable of a pathologist who receives an unusual midnight visitor.
In the third and final story, we jump forward in time to visit a widowed Canadian senator who finds himself unexpectedly visiting a chimpanzee sanctuary in Oklahoma.
Though all three stories are different in pacing and style, three themes connect them. One, not surprisingly, is the location of the High Mountains of Portugal, which becomes an important setting in each. The second is the idea that walking backwards communicates a kind of unspeakable grief, and was a minor but dramatic element that captured me completely. The third, surprisingly, is the humanity of chimpanzees.
Yes, despite the wildly improbable combination, each story involves all three of these things. For me, it was an impressive and thoroughly enjoyable feat.
Note: I received a complimentary copy of this ebook from the publisher in exchange for my honest review.
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LibraryThing member thewanderingjew
The High Mountains of Portugal, Yann Martel, author; Mark Bramhall, narrator
This is not an easy book to read. It feels almost as if it is set in a world of make-believe, and perhaps it is. When it begins, we meet a young man, Tomás, who walks backwards to deal with his grief from the sudden deaths
In Part two, still in Portugal, in the mid 1930’s, a renowned pathologist, Dr. Eusebio Lozora, is mourning the loss of his beloved wife who died strangely and unexpectedly. He is lost without her, but he insisted on performing the autopsy himself in order to discover the reason for her death, in spite of his sorrow. One evening, a stranger called Maria, knocks on his door and asks the pathologist to perform an autopsy on her husband’s body. She wants to find out how he lived. She has packed her husband Rafael, inside a trunk. Their child was the victim of an odd, tragic automobile accident, in 1904, after which Rafael Castro was never the same. Superstitions grew up around the death of that golden child believed to be an angel who could grant wishes of fertility. In this way, part 1 and part 2 are connected. As he performed the autopsy, he found unusual and strange objects like a chimpanzee, a bear cub, twigs, a knife and a fork, within the body’s various cavities. Eventually, he sews the body back up and bizarrely, the woman climbs inside and is enclosed, as well.
In Part three, in 1981, a Senator, Peter Tovy, from Ontario, Canada goes on a trip to the United States and unexpectedly purchases a chimpanzee named Odo. He, too, was bereft because of the loss of his wife, Clara. He decides to pack it all in and retire to his parent’s birthplace in the high mountains of Portugal, leaving his son Ben and granddaughter Rachel, behind. Coincidence after coincidence takes place until he finally realizes he has returned not only to his family’s birthplace, but also to the actual family home. The unusual crucifix, sought by Tomás, is coincidentally still in the church in his family’s hometown, and the connection to the beginning of the tale is made. In the high mountains, he regresses as he identifies more and more with his pet Odo, and less and less with societal needs. He gives up many creature comforts like his watch for he discovers that the natural world keeps the time for him. He finds he enjoys the company of the ape, more than he expected, and is quite content.
When the book ends, loose ends are joined and characters unique connections are revealed, but still, there are open questions. While the three stories are linked, they also feel oddly disconnected, in their own way. It is as if chance has brought them together, as if serendipity is at work. Recurrent themes are important to the story, like religion, Agatha Christie novels, chimpanzees, crucifixes, anti-Jewish sentiment, the automobile, suitcases, loss and grief and the different roads people choose in order to recover from their individual loneliness and sorrow. The book tackles the human need for comfort and company, Darwin and religion, and even politics to some degree, as it covers almost a century of time, with slapstick humor and fantasy.
The mirth in the tale was evident in phrases like "the car was eating up the road”, or it was "like a stomach in need of feeding", which painted bizarre images for the reader of the car as a living animal. His effort to get rid of lice, with a powder used for horses, had disastrous consequences. The use of several Portuguese quotes was distracting, but the prose was almost poetic. The narrator was perfect for the book, modulating his voice appropriately and presenting the role of each character clearly, so at least in that way there was no confusion. For creativity, the book deserves a 5, but for credibility, only a 3. For pleasurable reading, the book was also a 3, for me. It felt like hard work, at times, as I tried to connect the dots and figure out the meaning behind the story.
This is not an easy book to read. It feels almost as if it is set in a world of make-believe, and perhaps it is. When it begins, we meet a young man, Tomás, who walks backwards to deal with his grief from the sudden deaths
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of his lover Dora, a servant in his uncle’s house, their child Gaspar, and his father, Silvestro, all within the same week. It is his way of voicing his objections to G-d about his loss rather than an expression of his grief. Tomás works as an assistant curator in a museum dealing with ancient art. When he is sent to do research on a particular shipment that arrived at the museum, he discovers the diary of a defrocked priest, Father Ulisses Manuel Rosario Pinto. He secretly removes it, so he can read it. In the diary, it is revealed that the priest had an epiphany and objected to the slave trade and to the way slaves were treated. He was excommunicated from the church. He set about creating a gift which he believed would shed light on the mystery of life. Ulisses believed we were “risen apes, not fallen angels”. Tomas believes that the gift he created had to be a crucifix. He leaves his job and sets out to find this object in the high mountains of Portugal where the priest had lived. He believes if he can locate it, he can reveal a truth that will change the world and give a greater voice to his feelings about his suffering and the reasons for it. The year is 1904, in Portugal. His uncle lends him a car which he does not know how to drive, a car that is unique and valuable. The car is assaulted on his quest, as is Tomás. People are astonished by the sight of it and by the odd appearance and behavior of its driver. Then, one day in the high mountains of Portugal, Tomás discovers the crucifix he seeks within a church and is stunned by its appearance. When the car is involved in a strange, tragic accident causing the death of a child, the beautiful son of the Castros,Tomás abandons the car and runs off.In Part two, still in Portugal, in the mid 1930’s, a renowned pathologist, Dr. Eusebio Lozora, is mourning the loss of his beloved wife who died strangely and unexpectedly. He is lost without her, but he insisted on performing the autopsy himself in order to discover the reason for her death, in spite of his sorrow. One evening, a stranger called Maria, knocks on his door and asks the pathologist to perform an autopsy on her husband’s body. She wants to find out how he lived. She has packed her husband Rafael, inside a trunk. Their child was the victim of an odd, tragic automobile accident, in 1904, after which Rafael Castro was never the same. Superstitions grew up around the death of that golden child believed to be an angel who could grant wishes of fertility. In this way, part 1 and part 2 are connected. As he performed the autopsy, he found unusual and strange objects like a chimpanzee, a bear cub, twigs, a knife and a fork, within the body’s various cavities. Eventually, he sews the body back up and bizarrely, the woman climbs inside and is enclosed, as well.
In Part three, in 1981, a Senator, Peter Tovy, from Ontario, Canada goes on a trip to the United States and unexpectedly purchases a chimpanzee named Odo. He, too, was bereft because of the loss of his wife, Clara. He decides to pack it all in and retire to his parent’s birthplace in the high mountains of Portugal, leaving his son Ben and granddaughter Rachel, behind. Coincidence after coincidence takes place until he finally realizes he has returned not only to his family’s birthplace, but also to the actual family home. The unusual crucifix, sought by Tomás, is coincidentally still in the church in his family’s hometown, and the connection to the beginning of the tale is made. In the high mountains, he regresses as he identifies more and more with his pet Odo, and less and less with societal needs. He gives up many creature comforts like his watch for he discovers that the natural world keeps the time for him. He finds he enjoys the company of the ape, more than he expected, and is quite content.
When the book ends, loose ends are joined and characters unique connections are revealed, but still, there are open questions. While the three stories are linked, they also feel oddly disconnected, in their own way. It is as if chance has brought them together, as if serendipity is at work. Recurrent themes are important to the story, like religion, Agatha Christie novels, chimpanzees, crucifixes, anti-Jewish sentiment, the automobile, suitcases, loss and grief and the different roads people choose in order to recover from their individual loneliness and sorrow. The book tackles the human need for comfort and company, Darwin and religion, and even politics to some degree, as it covers almost a century of time, with slapstick humor and fantasy.
The mirth in the tale was evident in phrases like "the car was eating up the road”, or it was "like a stomach in need of feeding", which painted bizarre images for the reader of the car as a living animal. His effort to get rid of lice, with a powder used for horses, had disastrous consequences. The use of several Portuguese quotes was distracting, but the prose was almost poetic. The narrator was perfect for the book, modulating his voice appropriately and presenting the role of each character clearly, so at least in that way there was no confusion. For creativity, the book deserves a 5, but for credibility, only a 3. For pleasurable reading, the book was also a 3, for me. It felt like hard work, at times, as I tried to connect the dots and figure out the meaning behind the story.
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LibraryThing member lamour
In 1904, Tomas discovers an old journal written by a priest who spent years in Africa as a priest to slaves. It refers to an artifact in a church in Tuizelo which is in the mountains of Portugal. He sets out to go there driving an early Renault which he does not know how to drive. He has many
The next section starts 35 years later with a Portuguese pathologist doing a very strange autopsy in which he finds in the body a chimpanzee, a flute and other strange items. Everything is tied together in the third section when a Canadian politician who has a Portuguese background decides when his wife dies to adopt a chimpanzee and move to Tuizelo where all the loose ends come together. Strange novel with animals having almost human characteristics
This was a surprising easy read despite the the very unusual story.
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adventures and disasters on the way including hitting and killing a little boy. Once at Tuizelo, he finds the artifact which is a crucifix on which Christ looks much like a chimpanzee. This section of the book ends with Tomas fleeing the village.The next section starts 35 years later with a Portuguese pathologist doing a very strange autopsy in which he finds in the body a chimpanzee, a flute and other strange items. Everything is tied together in the third section when a Canadian politician who has a Portuguese background decides when his wife dies to adopt a chimpanzee and move to Tuizelo where all the loose ends come together. Strange novel with animals having almost human characteristics
This was a surprising easy read despite the the very unusual story.
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LibraryThing member Cecilturtle
What a delightful read! Three separate stories of loss, grief, and death are linked by circumstance, family but first and foremost faith. Martel does what he does best: weave human emotion with fantastic beasts and imagination, helping us understand that our humanity lives in a tumultuous
For this, the High Mountains of Portugal are a wonderful backdrop: barren, mysterious, sparsely populated with villagers deeply rooted in tradition, there is still a possibility for the strange and miraculous to occur.
A book of incredible sensibility which will lure the reader into a world of wonders.
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relationship with nature and our ability to tinge it with meaning even as we wonder about its magnitude and potential.For this, the High Mountains of Portugal are a wonderful backdrop: barren, mysterious, sparsely populated with villagers deeply rooted in tradition, there is still a possibility for the strange and miraculous to occur.
A book of incredible sensibility which will lure the reader into a world of wonders.
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LibraryThing member amaraki
Quirky, surreal stories. Lovely and straightforward prose. The three stories are linked by the common theme of grief for the loss of a loved one, while common images are reworked throughout -- a feature I found rather disconcerting as it shows the author's hand via his imagination too strongly.
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Rather sad, often funny, sometimes wise. Both a rewarding and an entertaining read. Show Less
LibraryThing member wagner.sarah35
I was really into this book for about the first third, then the story changed - and changed again, which made for a somewhat jarring reading experience. It made for a very interesting tale and the author is clearly very talented, crafting three interconnected story-lines which all tie back to a
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region known as the high mountains of Portugal. Many of the characters and the ideas they present offer rich food for thought and make this novel worthwhile reading. Show Less
LibraryThing member novelcommentary
I enjoyed Life of Pie and therefore looked forward to my second exploration into the philosophical, allegorical mind of Yann Martell.
From the jacket: The High Mountains of Portugal is a story about love, loss, and faith that take us on a mesmerizing journey through the last century. Told in three
Filled with tenderness, humor, and endless surprise, Yann Martel’s new novel offers a haunting exploration of great love and great loss, asking questions about faith and the lack of faith that are at the heart of all his novels.
I enjoy the philosophical nature of Yann's mind and the magical realism that drifts into the narrative like a Gabriel Garcia Marquez novel. He continues to explore the use of animals as symbolic devices. In this novel a quote that seems to resonate is :
"He weeps like a child, catching his breath and hiccupping, his face drenched with tears. We are random animals. That is who we are, and we have only ourselves, nothing more—there is no greater relationship. Long before Darwin, a priest lucid in his madness encountered four chimpanzees on a forlorn island in Africa and hit upon a great truth: We are risen apes, not fallen angels."
From the jacket: The High Mountains of Portugal is a story about love, loss, and faith that take us on a mesmerizing journey through the last century. Told in three
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intersecting narratives—part quest, part ghost story, part contemporary realism—the novel begins in the early 1900s, when a young man named Tomás discovers in the archives of Lisbon an ancient journal describing an extraordinary artifact that he believes will challenge the church’s understanding of religion forever and sets out for the High Mountains of Portugal in search of it. Thirty-five years later, a pathologist devoted to the murder mysteries of Agatha Christie is drawn into the consequences of Tomás’s quest as he finds himself at the center of a murder story. And fifty years after that, Senator Peter Tovy of Ottawa, grieving the death of his beloved wife, rescues a chimpanzee from an Oklahoma research facility and takes it to live with him in his ancestral village in northern Portugal, where the strands of all three stories come together.Filled with tenderness, humor, and endless surprise, Yann Martel’s new novel offers a haunting exploration of great love and great loss, asking questions about faith and the lack of faith that are at the heart of all his novels.
I enjoy the philosophical nature of Yann's mind and the magical realism that drifts into the narrative like a Gabriel Garcia Marquez novel. He continues to explore the use of animals as symbolic devices. In this novel a quote that seems to resonate is :
"He weeps like a child, catching his breath and hiccupping, his face drenched with tears. We are random animals. That is who we are, and we have only ourselves, nothing more—there is no greater relationship. Long before Darwin, a priest lucid in his madness encountered four chimpanzees on a forlorn island in Africa and hit upon a great truth: We are risen apes, not fallen angels."
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LibraryThing member CindaMac
This little fable delves into love and loss in three separate, but loosely connected stories. The setting knits three widowers together as much as the deaths of their wives. In spite of the theme, the tone is for the most part light, charming and humorous. The second story I found less enjoyable
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– in fact bizarre and confusing. The symbolism was lost on me and save for Martel’s lyrical prose I might have quit (I did resort to skimming - hence only 3 stars). If you like the surreal or magical realism, if you liked Life of Pi (you might recognize similar themes and puzzles) you will like this one - and perhaps give it 4 or 5 stars! Show Less
LibraryThing member thornton37814
Three stories--ranging from 1904 when cars were novelties until the late 20th century--are connected to a village in the high mountains of Portugal and to a crucifix in the church there. The connection runs a bit deeper, but readers are unaware of this until the end. It's a strange story, and while
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I never thought about dropping the book, I'm not certain I enjoyed it. I think it's the way the novel wraps up that leaves me somewhat dissatisfied. Readers deal with death, grief, religion, and even Agatha Christie, in the pages of the book, but I'm not sure the author's intentions in his theme are fully realized. I'm not even certain I know the author's intentions. It's a strange and somewhat disturbing novel. Show Less
LibraryThing member seeword
Three stories, linked by locale and a sort of legend. The first is somewhat interesting, the second has a strange theology, the third refers back to the other two. I suppose that I am meant to ponder the meaning of all this, but I'd rather forget it. Library book.
LibraryThing member brangwinn
I had high expectations of this book, sadly I finished the book not finding what I was expecting. The writing is excellent, but the three separate stories didn’t resonate with me. I guess it was the subject. One of my favorite aspects of fiction is quirky, well-developed characters and this book
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had many. I kept reading thinking the stories would take me to a satisifying end. Instead I ended each story frustrated with the development. Maybe that’s the way Martel planned it, the reader’s feeling equal that of the main character. Show Less
LibraryThing member janerawoof
A fascinating novel, not a series of three interconnected novellas as I had once thought. In 1904 a young man, Tomás, goes to the High Mountains of Portugal--really hills--in search of a certain religious item as mentioned in a priest's diary he has found in a religious archives. Upon finding the
The High Mountains link each story together. Tomás' journey to the High Mountains in one of the first automobiles ever made is hilarious. In the 2nd story, that of Senhora Lozaro, relating philosophically Gospel stories to Agatha Christie novels was at first interesting, but become boring. I felt there was no resolution: just a woman's eccentric rambling. The story explores love, loss, grief and its resolution.
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object, he feels it not suitable for a museum or church in the big city and leaves it. Some 30-40 years later a woman visits a pathologist and asks him to do an autopsy on her husband and tell her "how he lived." Story is somewhat eerie and creepy. In the 1980's a young Portuguese-Canadian politician, Peter Tovey, devastated after his wife has died, picks up and returns to the country of his birth, accompanied by a very intelligent chimpanzee [shades of Koko?] The ending is shattering. How the stories feed off of one another seems a bit implausible and coincidental. The High Mountains link each story together. Tomás' journey to the High Mountains in one of the first automobiles ever made is hilarious. In the 2nd story, that of Senhora Lozaro, relating philosophically Gospel stories to Agatha Christie novels was at first interesting, but become boring. I felt there was no resolution: just a woman's eccentric rambling. The story explores love, loss, grief and its resolution.
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LibraryThing member kakadoo202
What a ride!! So creative. Funny. Beautiful. Thoughtful.
LibraryThing member St.CroixSue
An inventive novel set in Portugal that is at times both charming and weirdly disturbing. Like Martel’s past work, there is a quest, a fable, and a journey with humor, surprise, and grief.
LibraryThing member terran
I absolutely loved listening to this book, read by Mark Bramhall. The first part just kept me laughing at Tomas's attempts to learn to drive an automobile in early 1900s Portugal. He was on a quest to find an artifact mentioned in a priest's journal he had stolen. The priest attempted to minister
The second part of the book almost lost me with a looooonnnng discussion about religion, Agatha Christie and a totally weird autopsy of an old man who coincidentally lived in the village of Tuizelo. The writing is beautiful and the narration is so well done that I couldn't stop listening.
The third part is a delightful story of a Canadian Senator who escaped from his hectic life after the death of his wife. He ended up adopting a chimpanzee and moving to the village from which his parents had emigrated when he was 2 years old. Guess where? Tuizelo! The rapport between the chimpanzee and the man as described was miraculous and fascinating.
There is so much to think about and relate to throughout the book. One reviewer commented that too much time was spent describing the Insignificant moments of life. I thought it was fascinating to listen to the wonderment present in everyday life.
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to African people captured and being transported to become slaves, but became disillusioned and created a crucifix meant to mock Christianity. Tomas finds the crucifix in the mountain village of Tuizelo,The second part of the book almost lost me with a looooonnnng discussion about religion, Agatha Christie and a totally weird autopsy of an old man who coincidentally lived in the village of Tuizelo. The writing is beautiful and the narration is so well done that I couldn't stop listening.
The third part is a delightful story of a Canadian Senator who escaped from his hectic life after the death of his wife. He ended up adopting a chimpanzee and moving to the village from which his parents had emigrated when he was 2 years old. Guess where? Tuizelo! The rapport between the chimpanzee and the man as described was miraculous and fascinating.
There is so much to think about and relate to throughout the book. One reviewer commented that too much time was spent describing the Insignificant moments of life. I thought it was fascinating to listen to the wonderment present in everyday life.
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LibraryThing member SigmundFraud
I was disappointed by Martel's newest novel. I gave up one third of the way through. What I read is all about an auto in 1904. I know that an auto was an unusual object at that time in history but it became the protagonist and who cared. Not I. I like settings in fiction and this setting of Lisbon
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had some appeal. But you don't need to rush out and buy the book. Show Less
LibraryThing member TGPistole
I had read and enjoyed The Life of Pi by this author and looked forward to a comparable read. The story began well for me and I especially enjoyed the early experiences the protagonist had with the motor car. Then it became one disaster after another, the original focus seemed to subsumed by these
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personal disasters and I lost interest in the book. I did not finish it. Show Less
LibraryThing member LDVoorberg
This novel is actually three novellas within one: "leaving home, going home, being home" is the paraphrase of their headings. They could be classified as Fall, Effect, Redemption in a nearly Christian allegory, but that would be too simplistic. Each story is its own, connected only by place and one
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event that creates the reader's recognition of the connection. Read the book like you read short stories: be in the moment, don't look for the arc of story but just note the life that is happening there before you and see it for itself. The third story was perhaps my favourite, but the middle story is also compelling. The first is comical and a bit absurd. I think this book could be re-read and new discoveries made. Worthy literature for study. Show Less
LibraryThing member Smits
Novel in three parts. . part one is called "Homeless and we meet a sad widower named Tomas who walks backwards, and is trying to find a crucifix he read about in an ancient diary of a priest. He borrows an automobile and it is 1916 and one of the first autos in Portugal and heads out to the high
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mountains of Portugal. Part two is "homeward" and we meet a pathologist in Portugal who's wife never stops talking and reads Agatha Christie novels and compares them to the bible. Eusbio does a dream kind of autopsy on a woman's 85 year old husband when she shows up at his office. Part 3 is called "Home and is modern day . Peter is a Canadian senator also a widower who on a convention in Okalhoma winds up buying a ape named Odo who he takes to the High mountains of Portugal and lives there with him quite happily. Part 3 is my favorite part. All threes sections weave and miander together and you can notice the thread but really what it is suppose to mean is hard for me to grasp. Still, Martel writes so well that I am captivated by his stories. Show Less
LibraryThing member gypsysmom
I listened to this book which was very ably narrated by Mark Bramhall. Still I wonder if I missed something by listening to it instead of reading it because it seemed very bizarre to me. I did return to a few portions to make sure I had heard what I thought I had heard (more details about that
There are three separate pieces to The High Mountains of Portugal but there are connections between them. The first occurs in the early days of the 20th century. Motor vehicles are a new invention. When a researcher comes across a diary written by a priest a few centuries earlier he is intrigued. The priest served in Angola and then an island in the Gulf of Guinea when slavery was in full swing. The diary shows the decline in the priest’s physical and mental health. It also documents a crucifix the priest was carving. This crucifix ended up in a church in the High Mountains of Portugal and the researcher is determined to find it. His rich uncle offers him the use of one of his motor vehicles to get to this remote region. The car is a Renault which his uncle refers to as the Iberian rhino, an animal now extinct. The researcher has been very depressed since his young son, his lover and his father all died in quick succession. The nephew has developed a quirk since these losses; he only walks backwards. No doubt the uncle thinks this trip will lift his nephew’s spirits. In the end, it does little for his mental health especially since he causes the death of a young boy.
The second part takes place on New Year’s Eve in 1938. A Portuguese pathologist is working late in his office when a knock comes at his door. It is his wife with a bottle of wine and some Agatha Christie mysteries. She has come up with a theory about interpreting the Bible using Agatha Christie books. Then she leaves exhorting her husband to not work too late. Another knock on the door is an old peasant woman with a big suitcase. It contains the body of her husband which she has brought from her village in the High Mountains of Portugal for the pathologist to examine. Although this is irregular the pathologist agrees and he finds many unusual things in the body including a chimpanzee (this is one of the parts I had to listen to a few times). After he writes up his notes he puts them in an envelope and puts everything he removed from the body into the suitcase. He falls asleep at his desk where the clerk finds him in the morning. From the clerk we learn that the pathologist’s wife died some time before.
The third part is set in more modern times. A politician who has been appointed to the Canadian Senate is also grieving the death of his wife. He is sent on a junket to Oklahoma where he goes to a primate research centre. There he meets a chimpanzee who immediately bonds with him. He strikes a deal to buy the chimpanzee and then takes him to the small village in the High Mountains of Portugal where he was born. This is the same village where the researcher found the priest’s crucifix and the same village that the woman who visited the pathologist was from. So all the threads do weave together but the ending is one of the most bizarre parts of the book (another part I listened to several times).
Obviously grief is a continuing theme throughout the book. Maybe men grieve differently than women because I can’t say I have ever seen a woman start walking backwards or bonding with chimpanzees. Or maybe just in Yann Martel’s imagination grief takes unusual forms. I can’t say I disliked the book but it is one of the most bizarre that I have read.
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later). I read and liked Martel’s previous work, The Life of PI. It too had its strange moments but seemed more coherent than this book. My book club will be discussing it shortly so I’m anxious to see what the other members thought of it.There are three separate pieces to The High Mountains of Portugal but there are connections between them. The first occurs in the early days of the 20th century. Motor vehicles are a new invention. When a researcher comes across a diary written by a priest a few centuries earlier he is intrigued. The priest served in Angola and then an island in the Gulf of Guinea when slavery was in full swing. The diary shows the decline in the priest’s physical and mental health. It also documents a crucifix the priest was carving. This crucifix ended up in a church in the High Mountains of Portugal and the researcher is determined to find it. His rich uncle offers him the use of one of his motor vehicles to get to this remote region. The car is a Renault which his uncle refers to as the Iberian rhino, an animal now extinct. The researcher has been very depressed since his young son, his lover and his father all died in quick succession. The nephew has developed a quirk since these losses; he only walks backwards. No doubt the uncle thinks this trip will lift his nephew’s spirits. In the end, it does little for his mental health especially since he causes the death of a young boy.
The second part takes place on New Year’s Eve in 1938. A Portuguese pathologist is working late in his office when a knock comes at his door. It is his wife with a bottle of wine and some Agatha Christie mysteries. She has come up with a theory about interpreting the Bible using Agatha Christie books. Then she leaves exhorting her husband to not work too late. Another knock on the door is an old peasant woman with a big suitcase. It contains the body of her husband which she has brought from her village in the High Mountains of Portugal for the pathologist to examine. Although this is irregular the pathologist agrees and he finds many unusual things in the body including a chimpanzee (this is one of the parts I had to listen to a few times). After he writes up his notes he puts them in an envelope and puts everything he removed from the body into the suitcase. He falls asleep at his desk where the clerk finds him in the morning. From the clerk we learn that the pathologist’s wife died some time before.
The third part is set in more modern times. A politician who has been appointed to the Canadian Senate is also grieving the death of his wife. He is sent on a junket to Oklahoma where he goes to a primate research centre. There he meets a chimpanzee who immediately bonds with him. He strikes a deal to buy the chimpanzee and then takes him to the small village in the High Mountains of Portugal where he was born. This is the same village where the researcher found the priest’s crucifix and the same village that the woman who visited the pathologist was from. So all the threads do weave together but the ending is one of the most bizarre parts of the book (another part I listened to several times).
Obviously grief is a continuing theme throughout the book. Maybe men grieve differently than women because I can’t say I have ever seen a woman start walking backwards or bonding with chimpanzees. Or maybe just in Yann Martel’s imagination grief takes unusual forms. I can’t say I disliked the book but it is one of the most bizarre that I have read.
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LibraryThing member GirlWellRead
A special thank you to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
I absolutely loved Life of Pi, and like that story, The High Mountains of Portugal was very hard to get into however, I did like this book more than Beatrice and Virgil.
This novel is made up of three separate narratives,
In true Martel fashion, the story has themes of love and loss, a strong animal presence, and almost a fable-like quality. His writing is beautiful, but at times too complex, especially in the beginning. I'm glad I finished the book, but I really had to push through the first story to do so.
I absolutely loved Life of Pi, and like that story, The High Mountains of Portugal was very hard to get into however, I did like this book more than Beatrice and Virgil.
This novel is made up of three separate narratives,
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all are connected and come full circle in the last story which takes the reader back to Portugal. The first narrative takes place in the early 1900s. Tomás sets out on a quest that takes him from Lisbon to the High Mountains of Portugal by one of the first motor cars. The second story takes place thirty-five years later. A pathologist is visited by his wife who juxtaposes the novels of Agatha Christie to Bible verses and then is possibly murdered when she leaves his office. He is then visited by a lady who bring him the body of her dead husband in a suitcase and wants and autopsy performed on him. And finally, fifty years later we meet Senator Peter Tovy of Ottawa who is grieving the death of his own beloved wife. Peter, on a whim, rescues a chimpanzee from a primate research facility in Oklahoma. He takes the chimp to Portugal, home to his ancestral village and this is where all three stories weave together. In true Martel fashion, the story has themes of love and loss, a strong animal presence, and almost a fable-like quality. His writing is beautiful, but at times too complex, especially in the beginning. I'm glad I finished the book, but I really had to push through the first story to do so.
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LibraryThing member jscape2000
The best moment comes in the books second act, when magic realism borders on the surreal. But as a whole, the final act doesn’t quite bring the separate threads of generational drama to a satisfying conclusion.
LibraryThing member neal_
Three connected stories. Each with good and not so good parts, each with preposterous events. A good read, overall.
LibraryThing member lbswiener
The High Mountains of Portugal is boring and tedious. It is really three novelettes. Under the guise of various characters from centuries ago, the author says very demeaning, racist and unnecessary descriptions of people that have nothing to do with the so called story lines. This book is tiresome
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and not recommended. Therefore The High Mountains of Portugal has rightfully earned two stars which really is being very generous. Show Less
Awards
Governor General's Literary Award (Finalist — 2016)
Saskatchewan Book Award (Shortlist — 2017)
NPR: Books We Love (2016)
Historical Novel Society Editors' Choice (Literary)
Globe and Mail Top 100 Book (Fiction — 2016)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2016
Physical description
352 p.; 5.08 inches
ISBN
9781782114741
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DDC/MDS
| 813.54 |