Water Touching Stone (Inspector Shan Tao Yun)
by Eliot Pattison | Mystery & Thrillers | This book has not been rated.
ISBN: 0312206127 Global Overview for this book
ISBN: 0312206127 Global Overview for this book
3 journalers for this copy...
Amazon.co.uk Review
"Given the critical and commercial success of Eliot Pattison's debut The Skull Mantra, which painstakingly limned contemporary Tibet's harsh beauty and defiant fatalism through the stoic perspective of Shan Tao Yun, a Chinese bureaucrat imprisoned in a Himalayan labour camp, it's no wonder the author's second novel, Water Touching Stone, returns to this hauntingly scarred country. But Water Touching Stone also widens the author's geographical and social scope. Shan must find a killer who is stalking orphan boys in the high mountains and deserts of the Xianjiang Autonomous Region.
Gendun, the senior lama at the monastery that has given Shan sanctuary, announces to his student: "You are needed in the north. A woman named Lau has been killed. A teacher. And a lama is missing." Though reluctant to leave the gentle presence of the monks who are balm to his crippled soul, Shan realises he has no choice.
It turns out that Lau had taken upon herself the care of the zheli, a group of orphaned children from all corners of Xianjiang, and strove to help the children retain a sense of native identity in the face of the Poverty Eradication Scheme, which is Beijing-speak for the destruction of the herding clans and the transformation of the western steppes into a region of exploitable resources. Shan wonders whether officials from the People's Brigade (perhaps the "Jade Bitch", Prosecutor Xu Li), or the feared secret police "knobs" from Public Security decided to put a stop to her subversive activities. But when the children from the zheli begin dying amid horrific tales of the "demon" that came for them, bleak politics must grapple with darker imaginings.
The novel sports a practically Dickensian cast of characters, which might overwhelm the narrative by sheer numbers, yet Pattison manages to add depth to even the most minor of characters, and at the moments when the troupe threatens to become completely unwieldy, he deftly redeems the situation with moments of quiet poetry. --Kelly Flynn --This text refers to the Paperback edition."
Product Description
"An unlikely group of outcasts dash across the remote northern reaches of the Tibetan plateau, summoned by the news that a venerated school teacher has been murdered and an ancient lama is missing. The two old Tibetans are rushing to restore the spiritual balance caused by the violent death. The sullen Tibetan resistance fighter is racing to battle a new foe. But Shan Tao Yun, the exiled former investigator from Beijing, just released from four years in the gulug, has set out to find justice, an elusive goal among the embittered and forgotten people of western China. One moment experiencing the serene reverence of an ancient shrine, the next feeling the horror of being buried alive in the desert, Shan encounters the many faces of courage found among oppressed peoples. Ultimately Shan's answer can be found only by revealing still greater tragedies, and justice, in the rough form he has come to expect in Tibet, is available only if he is able to piece the hatred and distrust that has been bred by Beijing's rule."
***
Bought at a flea market in Espoo, Finland.
"Given the critical and commercial success of Eliot Pattison's debut The Skull Mantra, which painstakingly limned contemporary Tibet's harsh beauty and defiant fatalism through the stoic perspective of Shan Tao Yun, a Chinese bureaucrat imprisoned in a Himalayan labour camp, it's no wonder the author's second novel, Water Touching Stone, returns to this hauntingly scarred country. But Water Touching Stone also widens the author's geographical and social scope. Shan must find a killer who is stalking orphan boys in the high mountains and deserts of the Xianjiang Autonomous Region.
Gendun, the senior lama at the monastery that has given Shan sanctuary, announces to his student: "You are needed in the north. A woman named Lau has been killed. A teacher. And a lama is missing." Though reluctant to leave the gentle presence of the monks who are balm to his crippled soul, Shan realises he has no choice.
It turns out that Lau had taken upon herself the care of the zheli, a group of orphaned children from all corners of Xianjiang, and strove to help the children retain a sense of native identity in the face of the Poverty Eradication Scheme, which is Beijing-speak for the destruction of the herding clans and the transformation of the western steppes into a region of exploitable resources. Shan wonders whether officials from the People's Brigade (perhaps the "Jade Bitch", Prosecutor Xu Li), or the feared secret police "knobs" from Public Security decided to put a stop to her subversive activities. But when the children from the zheli begin dying amid horrific tales of the "demon" that came for them, bleak politics must grapple with darker imaginings.
The novel sports a practically Dickensian cast of characters, which might overwhelm the narrative by sheer numbers, yet Pattison manages to add depth to even the most minor of characters, and at the moments when the troupe threatens to become completely unwieldy, he deftly redeems the situation with moments of quiet poetry. --Kelly Flynn --This text refers to the Paperback edition."
Product Description
"An unlikely group of outcasts dash across the remote northern reaches of the Tibetan plateau, summoned by the news that a venerated school teacher has been murdered and an ancient lama is missing. The two old Tibetans are rushing to restore the spiritual balance caused by the violent death. The sullen Tibetan resistance fighter is racing to battle a new foe. But Shan Tao Yun, the exiled former investigator from Beijing, just released from four years in the gulug, has set out to find justice, an elusive goal among the embittered and forgotten people of western China. One moment experiencing the serene reverence of an ancient shrine, the next feeling the horror of being buried alive in the desert, Shan encounters the many faces of courage found among oppressed peoples. Ultimately Shan's answer can be found only by revealing still greater tragedies, and justice, in the rough form he has come to expect in Tibet, is available only if he is able to piece the hatred and distrust that has been bred by Beijing's rule."
***
Bought at a flea market in Espoo, Finland.
Here's another book to fall victim to my recent resolution to give up on books that don't grab me from the beginning. I read up to page 70 and decided to stop because I couldn't keep track of the characters. Too bad because the story sounded interesting enough.
This book will now travel to Canada, because jumpingin chose it from the East Asian VBB. I hope you get more out of it than I did!
This book will now travel to Canada, because jumpingin chose it from the East Asian VBB. I hope you get more out of it than I did!
Thanks, Annimanni! Given your comments, I think I'll make a list of the characters as I go along. :)
I read the first in this series recently and wanted to read this one while it was still fresh in my mind. I did get lost in the number of characters and places, but managed to follow the story pretty well. It was interesting, and I learned a lot about the struggle of Tibetans, Kazakhs, and Uighurs.
Thanks, Annimanni, for sharing!
Thanks, Annimanni, for sharing!
I was sending the first in this series to erishkigal, so I put this one in the box as well as a RABCK.
What a great surprise! Many thanks, jumpingin :)
