Publisher's Synopsis
In Nepal the belief in reincarnation, with its usual support of caste, affords only limited separation of church and state. Yet democracy is a magic word there each person having conflict between what seems to be Gods will, and what seems to be their own. So for those born at the bottom, or near to it heavy feelings of guilt are produced by reaching to change things. They rarely do. But, when they do the action is likely to be en masse and eruptive. Jim Bart, who has been to Nepal many times, is invited to make a speech. A parliamentary election is due, and Jim has been asked by a candidate to speak about democracy. He does thatat Ratna Park. Eruptively a sea of Nepalis follows him to the palace and to the National Secretariat. Some Nepalis die. The changes asked of the government are few but they so threaten one powerful leader, Sadhev Raj Dahal, that he calls Jim an enemy of the state. Accompanied by his fiancée, Lin Thorne, and her five year old son, Jim leaves Kathmandu and begins a trek up the Everest trail where he soon learns that Sadhev Raj Dahal has been made Prime Minister, and has ordered his arrest and execution.
