The High Mountains of Portugal
2016 • Novel
In 1904, a museum curator who has lost his lover to cholera suspects a highly unusual crucifix is kept in a small church in a village in a remote corner of Portugal. He will find it. But first he must get there. He borrows a newfangled device from his wealthy uncle, an automobile.
In 1938, a pathologist grieving the loss of his wife is working late one night. A woman appears, with a heavy suitcase. Out of it tumbles the body of her husband. “Why did he die?” she asks. The doctor agrees to perform an autopsy. It is an autopsy like none he has ever done before.
In 1981, a Canadian senator, a recent widower, moves to a remote village in northern Portugal. But he brings with him an unusual companion, a chimpanzee. Though gentle and retiring, it takes over his life.
Three stories, a chimpanzee in each, one village, a similar search for existential meaning.
“There’s no denying the simple pleasures to be had in The High Mountains of Portugal.”
– Chicago Tribune
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