Description

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From the author of the critically acclaimed story collection NOT WHERE I STARTED FROM and a Granta "Best Young American Novelist," this much anticipated debut novel takes readers to opposite ends of the earth in a story of passion that is exotic and yet hauntingly familiar. "Assembled by a creator with a sure hand" (New York Times Book Review), WHEN MOUNTAINS WALKED charts two parallel love affairs, years apart, in settings as remote as the deepest canyons in the world, as vast as the Indian desert. In the 1940s Althea Baines follows her seismologist husband to the Indian subcontinent, where she awakens to a spirituality she never imagined and finds solace in a Hindu priest. Years later, her granddaughter Maggie follows her own husband to a canyon in Peru, where she falls in love with a revolutionary. The women's lives mirror one another throughout as each is swept up in the powerful forces that move them. Remarkable . . . fine and accomplished" (Boston Globe), WHEN MOUNTAINS WALKED reaffirms Kate Wheeler's reputation as one of our most captivating writers.

About the Author

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KATE WHEELER was named a "Best Young American Novelist" by Granta. Raised in South America, her debut collection, Not Where I Started From, was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award and was named a New York Times Notable Book. She is the recipient of a Whiting Award, an NEA fellowship, and a Guggenheim fellowship.

Praise For…

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"As fine as [NOT WHERE I STARTED FROM] was, however, it's clear now that it was a mere warmup for her remarkable first novel, ''When Mountains Walked.'' First novels are often damned with faint praise - arguably, the term itself is a polite way of saying an author's not half-bad for a beginner - but there is nothing apprentice-like in this fine and accomplished book." Boston Globe

"Kate Wheeler comes to the publication of her first novel with a fistful of prizes, glowing reviews for her short fiction (collected in Not Where I started From) and a reputation as a fine travel writer. When Mountains Walked showcases both sides of her talent. Though the Rosario River Valley is fictitious, Wheeler gives it concrete form...The background to the action is all very clear, observed by a writer who has trained as a traveler...You can see everything as if in a photograph. But When Mountains Walked is also a real novel, almost an old-fashioned one. It has plot and character, a climax, a denouement -- all assembled by a creator with a sure hand." The New York Times

"The kind of novel you gulp down, curious to find out what happens next . . . A real novel, almost an old-fashioned one. It has plot and character, a climax, a denouement -- all assembled by a creator with a sure hand." The Washington Post

"In WHEN MOUNTAINS WALKED two women joined by blood but separated by chronology follow their men, with love in mind, into two very different cultures. They find love, but not how or where the expected it, as they are tossed between idealism, hidden tenderness, lust, loyalty, and discovery. Rich details and a lyrical language make their physical and inner voyages at once restrained and intensely powerful."--Elena Castedo, author of PARADISE

"Kate Wheeler's WHEN MOUNTAINS WALKED again demonstrates her felicity of language, insight, and control. Ever since the early stories in NOT WHERE I STARTED FROM, Ms. Wheeler has been our best observer of the American condition transplanted and adrift in unfamiliar traditional societies." -- Robert Stone

"Kate Wheeler's descriptions and intuitions are quite wonderful-- she writes very well in indeed." --Peter Matthiessen

"...takes readers on a series of journeys -- into a Peruvian canyon, the desert of India and...into the hearts of two restless women...The strength of this book lies in Ms. Wheeler's lyrical use of language. She has a gift for tangible, descriptive writing..."When Mountains Walked" subtly questions how much is too much to sacrifice in a relationship. It is a deftly written debut by a gifted storyteller." The Wall Street Journal

"WHEN MOUNTAINS WALKED is a remarkably passionate and engaging novel and a glimmering showcase for this young writer's gifts." The San Francisco Chronicle

"Her first novel, WHEN MOUNTAINS WALKED, is a triumph in every way -- as enthralling story, vivid evocation of faraway places, deft portraiture and sharply observed social criticism...Wheeler's parallel narrative, in alternating chapters, tells the story of Johnny and Althea in Peru and India. This strategy richens our perspective on women's struggles for self-assertion in different eras. They are, the author implies, not so different as we like to think...In her ability to endow a fast-paced story with moral and political depth, Wheeler already displays mastery in the Graham Greene-Robert Stone tradition...In tightly focused yet metaphor-laden prose, this superb novel sets the mountains in motion -- shaking up relations between sexes, generations, and rich nations and poor. It's up to Kate Wheeler to deal with the aftershocks of literary acclaim." Newsday —