- Paperback: 352 pages
- Publisher: Abacus (Feb 7 2008)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0349119902
- ISBN-13: 978-0349119908
- Product Dimensions: 12.6 x 2.7 x 19.9 cm
- Shipping Weight: 281 g
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,733,618 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Shukman, a British travel writer and poet, weaves together political intrigue, passionate romance and personal discovery in a visceral and lush debut. Jackson Small is a traumatized 21-year-old discharged from the British army believing himself responsible for the death in Belize of buddy (and occasional bedmate) Connolly, who is mortally injured when the two are ambushed by Guatelmalan rebels while on a training mission in the jungle. Grief-stricken, he embarks on a penitent quest to find La Joya, the lost center of a vanished Peruvian empire that Connolly claimed to have glimpsed in the cloud forest between the Andes highlands and the Amazonian lowlands. As his adventures unfold, Jackson intersects with a remarkable cast: an orphan boy who saves his life; a world-weary British consular official right out of a Graham Greene novel; a former American Peace Corps volunteer living off the grid with two wives; a warmhearted priest trying to bring Catholicism to villagers; a vicious drug lord; and free-spirited Sarah, who calms Jackson's soul and claims his heart. Shukman's forbidding landscapes and fearsome jungle labyrinths are as striking as his characters, cranking up the intensity of a cinematic page-turner that echoes Greene and Conrad. (Feb.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Review
** 'Shukman skilfully blends his genres: political intrigue, drug lords and South American militia edge this novel towards a contemporary Boy's Own adventure in the style of Buchan or Rider Haggard, while the poetic prose harks back to Conrad's HEART OF DARKNESS ... A powerful debut DAILY MAIL ** 'Through it all there runs the pledge of genuine literature ... contains a golden streak of imaginative art Jan Morris, NEW YORK TIMES ** 'A gripping story of adventure, casual treachery and intrigue ... We want to pray for Jackson's safe passage as he pursues a penitent's journey across a forbidding landscape that is not only brilliantly evoked, but is also a moral and philosophical entity in itself GUARDIAN ** 'Exquisite ... A big, hearty work that is both gripping and intensely moving. Shukman's breathtaking, lyrical prose propels a pacy plot which, at its most visceral, becomes cinematic in its scope. On the strength of the writing alone, this is a contender SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4.0 out of 5 stars (9 customer reviews)
13 of 16 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Exactly what I want from a novel, Mar 3 2008
By John Thorndike "Author: The Last of His Mind:... - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Lost City (Hardcover)
They say a novelist should write the book unique to him, the book no one else could write. After fifty pages of The Lost City---even twenty pages---I felt like I'd entered a singular world, one in which only Henry Shukman could lead me on. Partly it's the exotic locale of the book, which moves from Peru's lowlands to highlands to cloud forest. (When barely twenty, Shukman wrote an earlier book about Peru, Sons of the Moon.) Partly it's the language, shifting without a blink from casually poetic and introspective, to pure impulse and drive. And partly it's the inventive range of characters, which include a young English soldier, Jackson Small, recently dismissed from the army after a mishap in Belize, a louche consular official who is slowly decomposing in the English diplomatic service, and a young Peruvian boy Small befriends, without ever being sure if it's a good idea, or if he'll have the strength to be loyal to the boy.The plot gathers power smoothly, almost unseen, like the moon coming up behind one's back. There's danger, there's a romance, there's constant movement through the emotional underbrush. Some might read the book for the pure adventure, but for me it's the quieter moments that light up the story: the drug lord who shows an unexpected need for approval, the consular official's desperate fantasies about Small's girlfriend, ("if he only could get her to see his tender side and accept him, he would give her anything, there was nothing he would deny her. She could even have affairs, whatever she wanted, so long as she would only give herself to him, give him a home"), and the quiet, determined Peruvian boy---the book's most self-reliant character---who not only sticks close to Small, but repeatedly saves him from disaster.
The plot is sometimes driven by coincidences, of which there are perhaps too many. But the advantage of Shukman's strong writing is that we gulp them down. We see them, as Jackson Small does, as no more than fate. For as long as I read the book, his fate became mine---which is exactly what I want from a novel.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
St Thomas Aquinas said, the secret to life is having a quest !, May 1 2009
By Steven T. Yellen "STEVE YELLEN" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Lost City (Paperback)
St Thomas was right. Jackson Small is on a quest. A quest in search of a city has told about by his budddy, who has passed away and said goodby to this sad and beautiful world. If Larry McMurtry's story of quest in "Lonesome Dove" stirred your soul, you must pick up a copy of Henry Shukman's "The Lost City."STEVE YELLEN
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars
Beware of boredom, April 28 2010
By Ron Johnson "Spokane Man" - Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
At first I couldn't figure out why it was taking me so long to read this book. The subject matter is interesting and the characters were not cookie-cutter people. The problem is that the author wants to impress himself with his word-smithing ability. Just as I found myself interested, he would spin 3 pages of description that totally distracted from the plot and the flow. I found this book more digestable by skimming a few pages at at time to move forward. After enduring this, the ending was just another dime-store-novel cliche. If you want a real page-turner nonfiction that reads like a fiction, read The Last Days of the Incas. That book has 1,000 times more adventure and intrigue then this book. Don't wast your time on this.
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