Eliot Patison

Okay, here's the thing. All of Eliot Patison's books have the same theme-that the Chinese are doing their absolute best to destroy Tibet-in ways large and small. They do everything from re-education camps to destroying the precious statues of gods and goddesses to throwing as many Tibetans as the can in work camps or coal mines. Something awful always happens in his books-someone always gets killed in front of someone else, something precious is stolen or destroyed, someone disappears and no one knows where they are. And it always takes me forever to read his books because because they are emotionally difficult to take, except in small doses. And yet...there is something about the story of the exiled Chinese Inspector Shan, who has spent four years in the Chinese gulag and instead of destroying him, it has made him a different person. Maybe it's the fact that in every book, someone always undergoes a change. It maybe for the worse, but it's usually for the better. For all that these books are filled with despair and anger, they still hold out hope and redemption. Yes, you can learn a lot about Tibet and its struggles against the Chinese but if that's all you see, you really aren't looking deeply enough to see the real message of these books, which is that hope and change are possible for everyone.

I just finished Beautiful Ghosts and it was fantastic. Shan meets his long-lost son, who not only hates him but is a criminal as well. People die, precious things are alternately destroyed and stolen and many hateful things happen. And yet, it's about redemption, hope, change and continuity. For all the awful things that happen, life still goes on and rituals are still handed down to the next generation.

I expect the next book will take me just as long to finish (and I'll probably have to read a book or two in the middle to help me take a breather) but this series just gets better. Patison's books aren't for the faint of heart but they are worth it.