IUniverse LLC 2013
Fiction soft cover 299 pages
When I turned over the last page in this book, I lay in the dimming quiet of my room, reeling in its mystical spirit. I was shrouded in the warmth of it. Even now as I attempt to write this review, I’m not quite certain if what I read was indeed fiction or perhaps reality disguised as imagination. So, I’m just going to keep this simple like the words I take directly from Dr. Snyder’s book:
“ Complexity only serves to obscure and deceive, ….. At every turn simplicity.”
This is a cautionary telling of friendship that knows no bounds. A friendship of four scientists and one philanthropist, researching a cure at best, something, anything that will stop the ravages of cancer. But when one of the ‘team’ goes missing, their search uncovers something that none of them expected to find.
Paro Taktsang is the popular name of Taktsang Palphug Monastery (aka Tiger’s Nest), a Himalayan Buddhist sacred site and temple, located on the cliff of the upper Paro valley, in Bhutan. “The holiest of all shrines, Taktsang, was built above the Dubkhang cave. It is the Tiger’s Nest, and a place of singular power, where pilgrims go to seek healing and enlightenment. It is the most sacred of all Buddhist monasteries, and it has no equal anywhere in the world”
I stumbled upon Dr. Dennis Snyder, a day or so after I read FictionFan’s Review on Arthur Clark’s The Nine Billion Names of God. Whilst Clark’s book didn’t appeal to me, the references made about Taktsang did. So, naturally when I began noticing Snyder’s book around and about, a book I didn’t even know existed or had the slightest notion thereof prior to FictionFan’s review, I just knew.
Written with the precision of a surgeon’s hand, every character, every place, every word will not soon be forgotten. Nicely done Dr. Snyder. Nicely done.
Dr. Dennis Snyder is one of the founders of Medical Missions for Children. He is an Ear, Nose and Throat (Otolaryngology) surgeon, based in Boston. One hundred percent of the royalties from this book are donated to that organization.
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