ORACLE LAKE
by Paul Adam
A search for the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama in occupied Tibet.
Risk-taking British photojournalist Maggie Walsh hotfoots it out of strife-torn Colombia to McLeod Ganj, India, where her sources tell her the 14th Dalai Lama, living in exile, is dying. Through subterfuge, she allies herself with a trio of monks determined to infiltrate the motherland to find his newborn successor and ferry him out of the country under the noses of the Chinese oppressors. Jigme, Lobsang and Tsering will know they have found their new spiritual leader when they have encountered three visions prophesied by a senior lama, but first they must outrun border patrols, lockdowns of the Tibetan quarter in Lhasa, fierce snows, altitude difficulties and even car troubles. After many travails, which include torture, bombing and a breaking of Buddhist oaths, the 15th Dalai Lama and his mum are duly settled in McLeod Ganja, and Maggie is off on her next scoop.
Despite comic-book escapades and triumphs, the tale is surprisingly effective in capturing the rigors of mountainous Tibet and the gentility of the Buddhist spirit. But Adam (The Rainaldi Quartet, 2006, etc.) continually derails his story with splotches of sentimental hogwash and close-ups of one-dimensional Maggie.