Synopses & Reviews
In his own preface to this remarkable novel, Augieras describes its theme as "a sojourn in the Land of Spirits, according to the strictest Buddhist or Phythagorean orthodoxy". One might equally well describe it as a kind of Buddhist Pilgrim's Progress, with the protagonist's wanderings mirror-ing his journey towards spiritual enlightenment.
Among his best-loved novels, A Journey to Mount Athosnot only expands upon all the themes Augieras introduced before in The Sorcerer's Apprentice-the immortality of the spirit, God, magic in the natural world, reincarnation, homosexuality-it also tells us more about the author himself, as the work was inspired by his retreats to Mount Athos and the time he spent with the Orthodox monks.
Synopsis
An adolescent boy sails to the remote monasteries and hermitages of Mount Athos. His spiritual and erotic wanderings in the picturesque surroundings of the Holy Mountain take both the author and the reader on a journey of self-discovery. Augiéras described Athos as a place where you find everything within yourself, and the experiences in this book as a sojourn in the Land of the Spirits according to the strictest Buddhist or Pythagorean Orthodoxy. Depicted variously as an anti-Christian nomad, a barbarian in the West and a madman, Augiéras is one of France's greatest underground writers.
Synopsis
A Buddhist Pilgrims Progress, a journey towards spiritual enlightenment for both narrator and reader
About the Author
Francois Augieras was born in Rochester, New York in 1925. He spent his early years in Paris and later moved to the Dordogne, which was to become his refuge in a fragmentary and restless life. He spent most of 1944-45 in Algiers, where periods in a Trappist Monastery and a reclusive uncle exerted a powerful influence on his work. Andre Gide dubbed his first book 'a bizarre delight.'