Two Sherpas

A contemplative, dual-POV rumination on Mount Everest, aging, and the perils and wonder of adventure, Two Sherpas invites readers to think about the fearless titular sherpas as protagonists--as people with pasts and futures and hopes and fears--rather than side characters born to assist in the feats of others. The novel is bookended by the fall of a British climber and the decision that must be made by the two sherpas accompanying him. What unfolds between is a thought-provoking exploration, with Argentine author Daniell's meditative prose beautifully translated by Croft, and a tight story that invites the reader to push at its walls and stretch it, all while feeling the claustrophobia of the mountain itself. How can a sherpa, known for one thing, try to be so much more? What have colonialism and decades of servitude done to a whole group of people, and how does all this come to a head when lives are on the line in more ways than one? This adventure, riveting from start to finish, invites the reader to experience the chill and danger of the mountain's peak. This novel in translation transcends alpinism.

Argentine novelist Daniell debuts with an evocative portrait of two Nepalese sherpas and their contrasting aspirations. It opens with Young Sherpa, a teenager, looking down upon the body of a fallen English mountaineer with Older Sherpa, a colleague in his mid-30s, whose understated and open-ended response to the incident speaks volumes to his younger colleague: "These people," Older Sherpa says with a sweep of his hand, which Young Sherpa takes to encompass more than the tourists who attempt to climb Everest. Young Sherpa has more than once summited the mountain while Older Sherpa has not yet made it to the top, and Daniell draws distinctions between the two in other ways. After Young Sherpa lands a role in a high school production of Julius Caesar, Daniell's extended summary of the play suggests Older Sherpa is Marullus to Young Sherpa's Flavius. (Daniell also compares them to Renoir and the younger Monet.) As the two sherpas philosophize on the nature of their work, Daniell reveals a fascinating universe in scintillating prose, precisely translated by Croft. Here's Young Sherpa considering a career in naval engineering while taking in a Himalayan view: "Blindness and bioluminescence. Tentacular electricity that discloses the dark of the ocean at night." It's a stunner. (Feb.)