Like Yann Martel’s Life of Pi, this book is an allegory that crosses several genres and consists of three stories that span generations.

In the first story, Tomás works in an art museum in Lisbon in the early 1900s. As part of his work he comes across the diary – written in 1631 – of a man called Father Ulisses. The diary contains references to an unusual religious artefact, and Tomás carries it everywhere. He has recently suffered deep personal loss, and he becomes obsessed with finding this wondrous crucifix, which he believes is in a church in the high mountains of Portugal. He begins a journey to the mountains that becomes a pilgrimage.

In the second story, Eusebio, a pathologist, is working late in the hospital in 1938 when he receives two visitors. He is also grieving. His first visitor delivers a gift, the latest Agatha Christie novel, Appointment with Death. Both he and his wife have a passion for her novels. The second visitor is much older, a widow dressed in black. She is carrying a beat-up suitcase. The contents of this suitcase greatly unsettle Eusebio.

The third story begins in Toronto, Canada, in 1981. Peter, a Canadian senator, is having difficulty recovering from the death of his beloved wife. On a holiday he takes a trip to a chimpanzee sanctuary that changes his life. The link between the stories is at first not apparent, but this multilayered story is about great love and loss. Its part journey, part quest and part mysticism. Unforgettable and highly recommended.

Review by Anne Davy