In this mesmerizing debut novel, a young American discovers he may be
heir to the unclaimed estate of an English World War I officer, which launches
him on a quest across Europe to uncover the elusive truth.
Just after graduating college, Tristan Campbell receives a letter
delivered by special courier to his apartment in San Francisco. It contains the
phone number of a Mr. J.F. Prichard of Twyning Hooper, Solicitors, in London
and news that could change Tristan's life forever.
In 1924, Prichard explains, an English alpinist named Ashley Walsingham
died attempting to summit Mt. Everest, leaving his fortune to his former lover,
Imogen Soames-Andersson. Walsingham’s solicitors searched in vain for Imogen,
but the estate was never claimed. Nearly eighty years later, new information
has surfaced that leads the same law firm to believe that Tristan may be Imogen’s
descendant and the estate’s rightful heir. But unless he can find documented
evidence before the trust expires, the fortune will be divided among charitable
beneficiaries in a matter of weeks.
From London archives to Somme battlefields to the Eastfjords
of Iceland, Tristan races to piece together the story behind the unclaimed
riches: a reckless love affair pursued only days before Ashley’s deployment to
the Western Front; a desperate trench battle fought by soldiers whose hope is
survival rather than victory; an expedition to the uncharted heights of the
world’s tallest mountain. Following a trail of evidence that stretches to the
far edge of Europe, Tristan becomes consumed by Ashley and Imogen’s story. But
as he draws close to the truth, Tristan realizes he may be seeking something
more than an unclaimed fortune.
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“Justin Go has written an astonishingly vast, meticulously plotted,
and beautifully told novel. In elegant, haunting prose he tells a
wartime story that is at once violent and lovely, hopeful and
despairing. I won’t soon forget Go’s passionate, star-crossed lovers and
their deeply moving story, set against the riveting, utterly realistic
backdrop of the Great War.”
—
Anton DiSclafani, New York Times bestselling author