British journalist Cowell (Killing the Wizards), an international correspondent for Reuters and the New York Times, weaves a lush if gloomy tale of love and betrayal set in England and Africa. Joe Shelby, a seasoned war correspondent, has embarked on the hiking expedition of his lifetime: scaling Scafell Pike, England's highest mountain. Several hurdles stand in Joe's way, the most serious being motor neuron disease, a crippling ailment that has left one of his arms debilitated and his muscles slowly turning to mush. He has promised his beautiful Kenyan girlfriend, Eva Kimberley, to return in three days, but she is troubled by shadows of the past. While Joe ambles up the mountain, the couple's history plays out in flashbacks. Joe first met Eva in Kenya, where he wooed her away from Jeremy Davenport, a photo safari guide. But Jeremy didn't mind losing Eva, since he had his sights set on Joe's French war-photographer friend, Faria Duclos, a tough-as-nails ex-model. Joe's mountaineering odyssey is recounted in excruciating detail as he speaks into a tape recorder, capturing every misstep and chronicling his increasingly deteriorating physical state ("little demons under my skin pulling at the muscle tissue"). Meanwhile, a snowstorm sweeps in off the Irish Sea, and Jeremy and Faria drift separately toward Scafell Pike. Cowell writes with urgency and elegance, and there's nary a word out of place in this striking debut. Though the self-absorbed protagonists are hard to like, their dogged pursuit of adventure and truth gives sharp-edged appeal to the narrative. (Sept.)
