Originally written in Russian by Ukrainian novelist Igor Zavilinsky, A Dream of Annapurna spans Nepal, Italy and the US. The book has an equally broad time frame, ranging from the 1950s to 2015.
The crux of the book focuses on two young Italian boys, who following a chance encounter with the French mountaineer Maurice Herzog who made the world’s first ascent of Annapurna in 1950, develop a joint dream to climb and hike in the Nepali Himalaya.
Yet life got in their way and they never made their trip. Decades later, the novel finds them much older and living vastly different lives. While one of the men ends up a highly successful businessman in New York, the other remained in Italy and is struggling to run a hotel. Yet both of them have difficult relations with their children and are well past retirement age. Life has perhaps not turned out as they might have thought. Their Himalayan dream lies forgotten. Then following a health scare and a forced period of rest and recuperation, a revised version of the trip is back on.
After not meeting for many years, they meet up in Kathmandu for a short visit and for a long-awaited reunion. They plan to take a helicopter trip to Annapurna base camp, but life intervenes again and their short break turns into a longer trip and they eventually decide to live out their childhood dream of a Himalayan hike.
As the journey takes place, the novel jumps back and forth between the 1950s Italy and 2015 Nepal, explaining more about their childhood and the birth of their climbing ambitions. The book culminates in a cliff-hanger and with the April 2015 earthquake which devastates the country.
Ultimately, Nepal is a backdrop for the two men to reminisce about their childhood. At times the descriptions of Nepal can be jarring, at least in translation, with words like “primitive” or stating that Nepalis have a “Tibetan serenity”.
An-easy-to-read multigenerational novel with well-developed characters, this novel from an unusual source is an interesting portrayal of the realities of a childhood dream lived out as an adult.
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