Frozen River by James Crowden, Hardcover, 9780008353179 | Buy online at The Nile
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Frozen River

Seeking Silence in the Himalaya

Author: James Crowden  

'A tour de force of luminous writing.' Mark Cocker, Spectator

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Summary

'A tour de force of luminous writing.' Mark Cocker, Spectator

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Description

'A tour de force of luminous writing.' Mark Cocker, Spectator

'Imagine if your family had lived in the mountains for a thousand years or more, what effect would that have upon your mind and your thinking?'

In 1976 James Crowden left his career in the British army and travelled to Ladakh in the Northern Himalaya, one of the most remote parts of the world. The Frozen River is his extraordinary account of the time he spent there, living alongside the Zangskari people, before the arrival of roads and mass tourism.

James immerses himself in the Zangskari way of life, where meditation and week-long mountain festivals go hand in hand, and silence and solitude are the hallmarks of existence. When butter traders invite James on their journey down the frozen river Leh, he soon realises that this way of living, unchanged for centuries, comes with a very human cost.

In lyrical prose, James captures a crucial moment in time for this Himalayan community. A moment in which their Buddhist practices and traditions are in flux, and the economic pull of a world beyond their valley is increasingly difficult to ignore.

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Critic Reviews

“Praise for The Frozen River 'In prose hard as the frost and gritty as the rocks, James Crowden weathers a Himalayan winter in snow-bound Zanskar and recalls the boundless hospitality and ingenuity of his wind-furrowed hosts. Crowden and Zanskar are a match made on high.' John Keay, author of India: A History 'Terrific. Crowden is a meditative swashbuckler: imagine John Buchan, cross-legged in a mountain monastery, smelling of sandalwood incense, or Wordsworth on speed, with a belt jangling with karabiners.' Charles Foster, author of Being a Beast Praise for James Crowden 'Ted Hughes territory seen from the inside' Andrew Langley, Daily Telegraph 'A precious and impressive evocation of that very ancient way of life' John Fowles”

Praise for The Frozen River

'The singular virtue of Crowden's prose is to create a sense of enormous immediacy ... he acts as a transparent lens that gathers all that fierce Zanskari winter light and illuminates the primary colors of both the place and its people. In so doing, he creates a tour de force of luminous writing.' Mark Cocker, Spectator

'A revelation...the most gripping and fascinating reads I have enjoyed for a very long time.' Martin Hesp, Western Morning News

'In prose hard as the frost and gritty as the rocks, James Crowden weathers a Himalayan winter in snow-bound Zanskar and recalls the boundless hospitality and ingenuity of his wind-furrowed hosts. Crowden and Zanskar are a match made on high.' John Keay, author of India: A History

'Terrific. Crowden is a meditative swashbuckler: imagine John Buchan, cross-legged in a mountain monastery, smelling of sandalwood incense, or Wordsworth on speed, with a belt jangling with karabiners.' Charles Foster, author of Being a Beast

'A luminous book, exquisite in its depiction, profound in its rhymes of ice and mind. As testament to its transporting power, when I'd finished it I felt I had spent a winter in Zanskar.' Jay Griffiths, author of Wild

'A fascinating, immersive, hair-raising read.' Tim Pears author of In The Place of Fallen Leaves

'A wonderful book, otherworldly, full of the ecstasies and revelations of true isolation and hardship.' Philip Marsden, author of Rising Ground

'An inspiring look into a world remarkably unaffected by modern life.' Wanderlust

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About the Author

James Crowden is an author and poet living in Somerset, England.

He is the author of Ciderland (2008) which won the Andre Simon Food and Drink Award in 2008 and visits India whenever he can.

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Product Details

Publisher
Harpercollins Publishers | William Collins
Published
23rd January 2020
Pages
352
ISBN
9780008353179

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