IN LISBON IN 1904, a young man named Tomas discovers an old journal. It hints at the existence of an extraordinary artifact that-if he can find it-would redefine history. Travelling in one of Europe’s earliest automobiles, he sets out in search of this strange treasure.

Thirty-five years later, a Portuguese pathologist devoted to the murder mysteries of Agatha Christie finds himself at the centre of a murder mystery of his own and drawn into the consequences of Tomas’s quest.

Fifty years on, a Canadian senator takes refuge in his ancestral village in northern Portugal, grieving the loss of his beloved wife. But he arrives with an unusual companion: a chimpanzee. And there the century-old quest will come to an unexpected conclusion.

The High Mountains of Portugal-part quest, part ghost story, part contemporary fable-offers a haunting exploration of great love and great loss. Filled with tenderness, humour and endless surprises, it takes the reader on a road trip through Portugal in the last century-and through the human soul.