In the Land of Giants

hunting monsters in the Hindu Kush
Gabi Martínez (trans. Daniel Hahn)

“A dark and hypnotic book…which leads us to the most remote and sinister side of the human soul.”

El Pais

“Martinez ably conjures the scent of juniper, the taste of black, salty tea and the sight of a 40-donkey convoy heading to Panjsh.”

Spectator

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“When reading this book, one gets gusts of the best of Kipling, and also of Chatwin, even of Robert Byron. It’s the story of an obsessive trip, of a murder, of several love affairs, of a journey, of an adventurer who got lost forever, of the danger latent in trying to uncover an elusive truth and a truth only meaningful for he who wants it told (and then also, of course, for the fortunate reader). Fascinating from start to finish, In the Land of Giants is the kind of incredible story only an excess of reality can provide.”

Javier Marías

How and why did a brilliant Spanish natural scientist meet his death in the Hindu Kush?

High up in the Hindu Kush, between the ancient pagan Kalash people and the new medievalists of the Taliban, a charismatic young Spaniard, Jordi Magraner, made his home, mastering the local languages and customs before meeting his death in a most mysterious way.

Jordi was a brilliant student of the natural world. His investigations led him to places where the legendary yeti had been sighted, and his passion for pursuit and discovery took him onto ever more perilous terrain in the Pakistani-Afghan borderlands. One by one, he turned his back on the Europeans who sought to assist him, preferring instead to entrust his safety to an Afghan youth fleeing the Taliban, and to a wondrous working dog called Fjord.

Jordi followed a winding, rocky path, down which Gabi Martínez resourcefully tracks him on this enthralling journey of detection and adventure in the Himalayas—where the truth is never as clear and pristine as the majestic mountains and the fast-flowing streams.

“A dark and hypnotic book…which leads us to the most remote and sinister side of the human soul.”

El Pais

“Martinez ably conjures the scent of juniper, the taste of black, salty tea and the sight of a 40-donkey convoy heading to Panjsh.”

Spectator

View all reviews

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Details

Format:Paperback

Size: 8.3in × 5.8in

Extent:400pp

ISBN (13):9781947534100

RRP:$19.95

Pub date:9 Jul 2018

High-res cover:Download Image

AWARDS

2018 The Premio Valle Inclán Prize - Runner-up

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AUTHOR

Gabi Martínez

Gabi Martínez has published eleven fiction and non-fiction books. He is particularly well-known for his outstanding travel writing and literary journalism, and his novels have been selected as books of the year by Spanish literary magazine Qué Leer. Martinez was included in Palgrave/Macmillan’s list of the top five writers of Spanish Vanguardism in the last 20 years.

TRANSLATOR

Daniel Hahn

Daniel Hahn is a writer, editor, and translator, with some eighty books to his name. His work has won him the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize and the International Dublin Literary Award, and has been shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize, among many others. His recent translations include Diamela Eltit’s Never Did the Fire, a novel, and Sidarta Ribeiro’s The Oracle of Night, a nonfiction book about neuroscience and dreaming.

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We publish books that matter — narrative and literary nonfiction on important topics, and the best of local, international, and translated fiction.

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