The High Mountains of Portugal

Lost in Portugal. Lost to grief. With nothing but a chimpanzee. The extraordinary new novel from the author of Life of Pi. In Lisbon in 1904, a young man named Tomas discovers an old journal. It hints at the location of an extraordinary artefact that – if it exists – would redefine history. Travelling in one of Europe’s earliest automobiles, he sets out in search of this treasure. Some thirty-five years later, a Portuguese pathologist finds himself at the centre of a murder mystery. Fifty years on, a Canadian senator takes refuge in northern Portugal, grieving the loss of his beloved wife. But he comes to his ancestral village with an unusual companion: a chimpanzee. The High Mountains of Portugal takes the reader on a road trip through Portugal in the last century – and through the human soul.

Reviews of The High Mountains of Portugal

Replete with every bizarre and beautiful thing on earth … his many fans will delight * The Times * Moments of real wonder … recall the Martel who dazzled readers with Pi's fabulous (in the original sense) 227 days at sea with a tiger called Richard Parker * Sunday Times * A book of great wisdom and beauty — Gavin Francis His best since Life of Pi … miraculous * Washington Post * Martel is incapable of writing a dull sentence * Daily Express *