arts & culture

Fifteen years since the release of the inimitable Life of Pi, Canadian author Yann Martel takes us on another journey, this time to 20^th century Portugal. His latest novel, The High Mountains of Portugal, is a work in three parts, each one set in a different era.

The story begins in 1904, where Tomás, a young man grieving the death of his son, father and lover, sets out on a quest to find a long-lost religious relic mentioned in the diary of a 17^th century priest. Some thirty years later, we spend a single evening in the northern town of Bragança, where a pathologist and Agatha Christie fan finds himself at the center of a murder mystery.

The story concludes when the third of the protagonists – a Canadian senator – visits Portugal fifty years later, dealing with his own grief and bringing Tomás’ tale to an end. Writing a Man Booker Prize-winning, internationally bestselling novel is never an easy act to follow, but Martel has creator a worthy successor to Pi with this.