The White Mountain

Author(s): Galsan Tschinag

Location(s): Mongolia

Genre(s): Fiction

Era(s): Contemporary

The story begins with the arrival of triplets, born to a woman who has given birth three times previously, and buried each child shortly thereafter. This time the delivery goes well. That same night a family of five suffocates in their beds from the smoke of their home fire. Telling the tale is a young man, Dshurukuwaa, a child from the village, who comes to understand his unique place as a shaman and a storyteller in this far-flung world of the Tuvan people.

The White Mountain is Galsan Tshinag’s wondrous final installment in a trilogy that began with The Blue Sky and continued in The Gray Earth. It chronicles the coming-of-age of a nomadic Mongolian boy as he searches for personal identity amidst the tension between the modern socialist education of Mongolia and the centuries-old traditions of his Tuvan people. As he develops his shamanic powers and poetic gifts, Dshurukuwaa discovers the tragedy and magic of love, life, poetry, and dreams. Gripping and lyrical, The White Mountain is sure to become a classic of world literature

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