Author(s): Erika Fatland

Travel | Asia

An ambitious and magnificent new travelogue by bestselling and prizewinning author Erika Fatland, on a journey along the Himalayas.

The Himalayas meander through five very different countries, where the world religions of Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism are mixed with ancient shamanic religions. Countless languages and vastly different cultures live in the secluded mountain valleys. Modernity and tradition collide, while the great powers fight for influence. We have read about mountain climbers on their way up Mount Everest and about travellers on the spiritual quest for Buddhist monasteries. But how much do we know about the people living in the Himalaya? Fatland invites us into close encounters with the many peoples of the region, and at the same time takes us on a dizzying journey at altitude through incredible landscapes and dramatic, unknown world histories - all the way to the most volatile human conflicts of our times.

Translated from the Norwegian by Kari Dickson

Review: Enchanting -- Martin Chilton * Independent (Books of the Month) *
Erika Fatland is shaping up to be one of the Nordics' most exciting new travel writers * National Geographic *
Fatland is a sensitive and insightful chronicler of quotidian lives and a compelling narrator. -- Hannah Beckerman * Observer *
An engaging snapshot of the current residents of this high-altitude battleground . . . Fatland is a lovely writer with a sympathetic eye for the absurd, who draws affectionate pen portraits of the people she meets -- Amy Kazmin * Financial Times *
Norwegian anthropologist Erika Fatland, whose previous books include Sovietistan, distinguishes herself from the stereotypes . . . Writing with aplomb and sensitivity, Fatland observes the sights and sounds of cities, towns and villages; she visits temples and forests and explores the high plateau. Places are carefully contextualised with geopolitical and historical detail and she weaves in geology too, grounding the work in the land itself . . . [a]s traveller and anthropologist, [she] establishes a unique rapport with girls and women leading to precious insights into lives rarely recorded. -- Anna Fleming * Guardian *
Erika Fatland has written a masterpiece . . . Along the way Fatland has developed her own distinct approach to travel writing. She now writes better than Robert D Kaplan * Aftenposten *
Even the reader gasps for breath * Adressavisen *
Fatland's extensive knowledge subtly forms an elegant backdrop for her encounters with the local people * Morgenbladet *
Erika Fatland is about to, singlehandedly, completely renew Norwegian travel literature. * VG *
Respect. Erika Fatland can travel, she can write. HOYT is a brilliant book. * Politiken *
Genre-bursting world-class travel literature. Brilliantly executed deep-dive into the human conditions in some of the world's most important countries. -- Jens A. Riisnaes
Fatland has risen to new literary and literal heights * Dagbladet *

Author Biography: Erika Fatland was born in 1983 and studied Social Anthropology at the University of Oslo. Her 2011 book, The Village of Angels, was an in situ report on the Beslan terror attacks of 2004 and she is also the author of The Year Without Summer, describing the harrowing year that followed the massacre on Utoya in 2011. For Sovietistan (2019) she was shortlisted for the Edward Stanford/Lonely Planet Debut Travel Writer of the Year, and The Border (2020) was shortlisted for the Stanfords Dolman Travel Book of the Year 2020. She speaks eight languages and lives in Oslo with her husband.