For much of the past 40 years, Colin Thubron has written comprehensive and notably restrained travel books from the less-visited regions of Russian, China and Central Asia. While travel writing can descend into gimmick and self-promotion, Thubron has distinguished himself by treating travel writing like a trade. He learns languages, does his research, and has developed a specialty. In a genre defined by its messiness and breadth of subjects, style and intention, Thubron has been rigorous, dedicated and very good.

To a Mountain in Tibet is notable because, like its title, it is understated while covering an enormous amount of material. Thubron traverses physical and spiritual territory adjacent to Peter Mattheissen’s Himalayan classic, The Snow Leopard. Where Matthiessen wrote with the enthusiasm of a convert and the romance of a poet, however, Thubron travels to Tibet’s Mount Kailas as an extremely well-informed and disciplined agnostic. Alongside pilgrims, trekkers, yak herders and Chinese soldiers, Thubron catalogues the diverse religious and social forces, some subtle and magical, and maps them onto his journey. To a Mountain in Tibet stacks these interpretations together until they give an accurate sense, in aggregate, of the most important spiritual site many of us don’t know.

Like his fellow traveler Paul Theroux, Thubron has a parallel career as a novelist and uses literary fireworks sparingly but effectively. He talks extensively to those he meets along the way, knows his place in the history of travellers, and drops both names and fascinating stories from the interlopers who went before. Most impressively, Thubron filters all of this through intimate personal experience but stops short of dominating the book with his voice. Without turning complexity into mysticism or mystery into dusty lists, Tibet is a quiet book that explores pilgrimage, grief and Tibet itself without seeming to explain anything. For a travel book, that is a high compliment.

Luke Meinzen is an intern at Sleepers publishing and a freelance reviewer.