From the acclaimed author of We Ride Upon Sticks comes a luminous novel that moves across a windswept Mongolia, as estranged twin brothers make a journey of duty, conflict, and renewed understanding. "A dazzling achievement...The rhythms are more like prayer than prose, and the puzzlelike plot yields revelations." —The New York Times Tasked with finding the reincarnation of a great lama—a spiritual teacher who may have been born anywhere in the vast Mongolian landscape—the young monk Chuluun sets out with his identical twin, Mun, who has rejected the monastic life they once shared. Their relationship will be tested on this journey through their homeland as each possesses the ability to hear the other’s thoughts. Proving once again that she is a writer of immense range and imagination, Quan Barry carries us across a terrain as unforgiving as it is beautiful and culturally varied, from the western Altai mountains to the eerie starkness of the Gobi Desert to the ancient capital of Chinggis Khaan. As their country stretches before them, questions of faith—along with more earthly matters of love and brotherhood—haunt the twins. Are our lives our own, or do we belong to something larger? When I’m Gone, Look for Me in the East is a stunningly far-flung examination of our individual struggle to retain our convictions and discover meaning in a fast-changing world, as well as a meditation on accepting what simply is.
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“Faith and brotherhood are at the heart of Quan Barry’s compelling new novel.”
— PopSugar
“A dreamlike and lyrical journey steeped in the tenets of Tibetan Buddhism.”
— Kirkus Reviews (starred review)“Challenges stereotypes of Buddhist monks that readers may carry.”
— Boston GlobeBe the first to write a review about this audiobook!
Quan Barry was born in Saigon and raised on Boston’s North Shore. She is the author of two novels and four books of poetry; her collection Water Puppets won the AWP Donald Hall Prize for Poetry and was a PEN Open Book Award finalist. She has received NEA fellowships in both fiction and poetry, and her work has appeared in such publications as Ms. and the New Yorker. She teaches at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.