It is the second book of a trilogy seemingly dedicated to the younger
readers. A strange walk that one of Isabel Allende,
because generally
the writers start from the children literature to land in the adult
romance,but there is a good reason for the new sailing, the original
feature of the Chilean writer. The tale's actors were always children
and the adults were forbidden to go in the magic realm, as lastly to
the invisible railway-track of Harry Potter. On the contrary there are
living real adults in the fabulous realm of Isabel and they not only
see directly the happenings but they play an active role in the
history. It is the case of the old American aunt Kate
Cold, member of the INTERNATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC asking her for new
articles about not well known places. The destination is the Asian
kingdom of Golden Dragon, a mythological small country each one can
feel near to the Tibet or to Nepal. The king is a wise man entrusting
with the education of his son, Dil Bahadur a Buddhist hermit, Tensing.
The details of this training, how to eat, how to dress, how
to heal , how to see the
world and how to react to the nature as to the
men, all teached to face the factual problems of a long
treking in the high mountains, is the masterpiece of the first
chapters. At the beginning of the new adventure Kate Cold prepared a
surprise to the nephew Alexander,the young American hero: she took
Nadia, the Amazonian girl of the previous travel, with her little
monkey. They fly to Tunkhala, the capital town of the kingdom :
in the royal palace they will meet the king, giving assurance the
precious old national
treasury was not found by the Chinese soldiers
and it is even safe home.
Unfortunately a lot of differents actors, all strangers, are conspiring
to steal the treasury and to kill the king. Between them the Collector,
aiming at the maximum wealth in the world, the Specialist,chief of a
powerful criminal organization, the blue fighters, Judit Kinski, the
sophisticated western woman known as the king's advicer and support.
The team of 4 young people, Alexander and Nada with Dil Bahadur and his
promised wife Pema, will win using all local tools, including the
yetis, a special race of half men,whose survival is threated by their
isolation. They are very rough beings but not so much do not
choice the fight against the bad intruders and Tensing will pass the
next six years as their guide in the high Himalayan lands.