DNF - I think that I had I tried to read this at a different time, I would have really been able to immerse myself in the story. Unfortunately for now, I am setting it aside.

This is a beautiful story by Tsering Yangzom Lama presenting a multi-generational look at culture and displacement of Tibetans. I grew up so close to Tibet and yet I knew almost nothing about it. Having been to Dharamshala, the city that is home to the Dalai Lama and Tibet’s government-in-exile, I was too young to ask myself then what led to this exile. Now that I am older and see books that can fill in the gaps in my understanding from the past, I pick them up.

𝚆𝚎 𝙼𝚎𝚊𝚜𝚞𝚛𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝙴𝚊𝚛𝚝𝚑 𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚑 𝙾𝚞𝚛 𝙱𝚘𝚍𝚒𝚎𝚜 immersed me in its culture, religion and love. In so many ways I felt understood. With the characters, I felt the pain of losing loved ones, the hardships of adjusting to a new country, the pressure of doing well and the peace of making the best of the circumstances. I found my own culture reflected in the rituals for death and prayer.

An integral part of the book is the statue of a nameless saint. It appears in times of need. I loved this mystical aspect of the book. To believe in something bigger than ourselves and find solace in it. To accept the timing in things. Head to my blog to read my full review and a reflection on the importance of land in longevity of culture and traditions.

Many thanks to the publisher for a review copy of this book for an honest review.

A family saga about a Tibetan family who flee Tibet in the 1950s, this novel relates the lives of several members as they travel to refugee camps in Nepal. From here, one of the daughters moves on to Toronto while her sister remains. Later her niece is sent to Toronto to live with her aunt. A small statue, a ku, plays a continuing role in the story. Lama’s prose is poetic and the story fascinating, although slow in parts. The narrative is told by various characters and moves forward and backward in time. An interesting aspect is the fascination by Westerners with Tibetan culture but not the Tibetan people. It is historical fiction with themes of relationships, family, homeland and tradition.

Author Tsering Yangzom Lama has crafted a powerful, moving story spanning from China's invasion of Tibet to 2012. Centering the story on two sisters, and eventually the daughter of the elder sister, the author Incorporates a number of weighty ideas, such as
-attempted eradication of Tibetan culture
-Refugees and statelessness
-Grief
-Immigration
-Western perception of Asian cultures
-Cultural appropriation by western institutions, and how and where to restore stolen artifacts
-The difficulty in sustaining one's heritage as a member of a diaspora

I loved this book. It was suffused with loss, missed connections, grief, and three brilliantly conceived characters. Elder sister Lhamo and younger Tenkyi suffer the loss of their parents when they must flee Tibet. They hear how monks are being attacked, and temples are destroyed by the Chinese, and they grow up in a refugee camp. Lhamo sees an ancient statue, called the Nameless Saint, when a young man, Samphel, and his uncle bring it to the camp. It's a critical piece of their heritage saved from the violence inflicted by the Chinese. Lhamo and Samphel feel a connection, but he disappears from her life.

Tenkyi studies to be a teacher, and years later, immigrates to Toronto, where Lhamo's daughter Dolma later arrives, to become a scholar of Tibet Studies. The irony is not lost on her, as Dalmo must come to Canada to find her heritage, while Tenkyi suffers from bad memories of her time many years earlier. Dalmo also comes across the Nameless Saint, evoking many relevant questions in her about who has the right to own this: museums or private collectors who don't care about the provenance, or the diaspora, to whom this is not just a religious symbol but seen as a living saint?

There is so much longing in the characters for: their former land, love, a past, lost loved ones, and connections to a place and one's heritage. And it's all told with an undercurrent of grief. It's a lovely book.

Thank you to Netgalley and to Penguin Random House Canada for this ARC in exchange for my review.

As someone who is unfamiliar with Tibet and their history, Lama gives readers a look into Tibetan culture and spirituality, and the current struggles of displaced peoples/people in exile from their homelands.
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​I read this while traveling in the Canadian Rockies for the first time. Reading the descriptions of their home in the mountainous regions of Tibet while traveling through the mountains of Alberta helped me understand that wondrous feeling. The mountains have a way of making you feel both small, and like a world of opportunity is in front of you. That mountains have stood and seen humankind change and evolve, that they still stand regardless of the chaos and war that sometimes occurs around them is humbling to think about.
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​This is novel is also one of the few books (that I know of) that speak about Chinese colonization. Living in what is now known as Canada, I’ve learned about European colonizers on Indigenous land here and internationally, but there is little discussion about colonization in Asia. As a Chinese person, there were a lot of conflicting emotions while reading this book. I wasn’t born in China, neither were my parents, and none of us have been. But the bond of my ethnicity to the country I’ve never been to made me feel guilt and shame while reading this novel. And I think I’m still processing what this means.
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​In the meantime I will continue to learn more about the Tibetan struggle to reclaim their homelands, and I hope this book inspires others to do so as well.

was IMMEDIATELY interested in this one when I saw it touted as the perfect read for lovers of Homegoing & multi generational sagas. While I believe it's impossible to live up to Homegoing, I did enjoy this one and loved the focus on Tibetan culture.

This beautiful story flips between the lives of Lhamo & Tenkyi, two sisters living in a refugee camp in Nepal after the Chinese invasion of Tibet, and then ultimately, Lhamo's daughter, Dolma, living in Canada and pursuing a degree in Tibetan studies.

Woven throughout this novel is incredible education about Tibetan culture (of which I knew embarassingly little). It explores the complexities of Tibetan identities, and the role of politics and religion on the characters worldviews. This is a character driven novel with a loose plot focused around a sacred object that reappears throughout Dolma & Lhamo's life. There's love, loss, struggle, triumph and heartbreak.

While this had all of the ingredients that I normally love, I did find it to drag a little in the middle, but the flipping narratives & time periods helped! That said, I enjoyed learning about a story from a part of the world I'm not familiar with, and I'd love to know if you plan to read this one!