We Measure the Earth with Our Bodies
A Novel
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4,3 • 12 valoracions
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- $3.99
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- $3.99
Descripció de l’editorial
2023 Banff Mountain Book Award Winner
2023 Kobo Emerging Writer Prize Shortlist
2023 Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize Shortlist
2023 Jim Deva Prize for Writing that Provokes Shortlist
2023 Carol Shields Prize for Fiction Longlist
2022 Scotiabank Giller Prize Shortlist
2022 Center for Fiction First Novel Prize Longlist
2022 Toronto Book Awards Longlist
For readers of Homegoing and The Boat People, a compelling and profound debut novel about a Tibetan family's journey through exile.
In the wake of China’s invasion of Tibet throughout the 1950s, Lhamo and her sister, Tenkyi, arrive at a refugee camp on the border of Nepal, having survived the dangerous journey across the Himalayas into exile when so many others did not. As Lhamo—haunted by the loss of her homeland and her mother, the village oracle—tries to rebuild a life amid a shattered community, hope arrives in the form of a young man named Samphel and his uncle, who brings with him the ancient statue of the Nameless Saint, a relic long rumoured to vanish and reappear in times of need.
Decades later, the sisters are separated, and Tenkyi is living with Lhamo’s daughter, Dolma, in Toronto's Parkdale neighbourhood. While Tenkyi works as a cleaner and struggles with traumatic memories, Dolma vies for a place as a scholar of Tibetan Studies. But when Dolma comes across the Nameless Saint in a collector’s vault, she must decide what she is willing to do for her community, even if it means risking her dreams.
Breathtaking in scope and powerfully intimate, We Measure the Earth with Our Bodies is a gorgeously written meditation on colonization, displacement, and the lengths we'll go to remain connected to our families and ancestral lands. Told through the lives of four people over fifty years, this beautifully lyrical debut novel provides a nuanced portrait of the world of Tibetan exiles.
RESSENYA DE L’APPLE BOOKS
Tibetan Canadian author Tsering Yangzom Lama’s debut novel paints a heartrending portrait of a family in exile. The story begins in 1960, after the Chinese invasion of Tibet. We follow young Lhamo and her family as they journey through the treacherous Himalayan mountains to a refugee camp in Nepal, carrying with them little but their unshakable spirituality and sense of community. While in the camp, Lhamo encounters an arresting statue of a nameless saint—which her own daughter will fatefully encounter again decades later, thousands of miles away. Lama’s multigenerational tale offers a searingly honest look at the Tibetan diaspora, the trauma of exile, and how colonization can make real people feel like mere artifacts to be studied. We Measure the Earth with Our Bodies is a page-turning survival story and an eye-opening look at the strength and resilience of the Tibetan people.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Lama debuts with the heartfelt and magical saga of a Tibetan family's love, sacrifice, and heritage. Starting in 1960, Lama interweaves the lives of four characters: Lhamo and her younger sister Tenkyi, whose parents are killed during their flight from Tibet to Nepal, where they resettle in a village for refugees; Lhamo's daughter Dolma; and Samphel, Lhamo's childhood love, whom she meets in Nepal. Lama also explores the influence of a ku—an ancient statue that Samphel's uncle brings into Lhamo's village—on each of their lives. Lhamo, despite heartache, encourages her younger sister to leave their village to study in India and improve her future prospects. Decades later, in another act of selflessness, Lhamo suggests her daughter join Tenkyi, now in Toronto, to complete her studies and have a better life. When Dolma discovers the ku of Lhamo's childhood in the possession of a private collector in Canada, she sets in motion a series of events that illustrate the power of the ancient relic and its hold on Lhamo's family. Lama imbues this mesmerizing tale—informed by her own family fleeing Tibet for Nepal in the early 1960s— with a rich sense of history, mysticism, and ritual. This brings great revelations and significance to a family's courage and acts of cultural preservation.
