Esau [Hardcover]

Philip Kerr (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1997

The accidental discovery of a mysterious fossil skull unleashes a political and scientific struggle as a paleoanthropologist tries to confirm that the skull represents proof of a missing link, while in the Punjab, two nuclear powers draw ever closer to war. 100,000 first printing.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Forget Everest. The most dangerous peak in the Himalayas is Machhapuchhare, considered so sacred that the Nepalese have banned all climbers. And no wonder, as American mountaineering ace Jack Furness discovers after an illegal entry--this is where the Yeti, a.k.a. the Abominable Snowman and Bigfoot, makes his home. Sure to be a major motion picture, this latest from the author of The Grid is an exciting if somewhat predictable (Furness's lover just happens to be a world-class paleoanthropoligist, for example) story of action, political intrigue, and moral ambiguity high above the clouds. If you don't recognize the title's source before Kerr reveals it, you've never heard Alan Bennett's hilarious "My brother is an hairy man" sermon.

From Publishers Weekly

British author Kerr follows The Grid with an accomplished hybrid of science and Spielberg, in which readers journey to a pristine, mystical locale high in the Himalayas. Jack Furness, America's greatest mountain climber, is the only survivor of an ill-fated?and illegal?assault on Machhapuchhare, a huge peak considered holy by the Nepalese. He returns to the U.S. and presents his former lover, paleoanthropologist Stella Swift, with a hominoid skull he found in an ice cave on the mountain. The skull turns out to be not a fossil but the remains of a yeti?more popularly known as an Abominable Snowman. Stella and Jack quickly assemble an expedition whose nominal purpose is fossil-finding on a neighboring mountain, but whose real purpose is to trap a yeti in order to advance both science and their own glory. What they don't know is that the Pentagon has an interest in this region as well, and has inserted a secret agent into the expedition. The daredevil feats of the mountaineers, the impossible cold and the endless miles of glacier and snow in the little-visited Annapurna Sanctuary make this novel a marvelous armchair travelogue, but it's far more: a complicated yet visceral thriller in which monsters, human and otherwise, roam the earth and hunt each other. Convincing scientific and technological detail will have readers believing easily in yetis and other wonders of the world's highest mountains; they will even forgive the unabashed sentimentality of the ending. Kerr manages his large cast of characters with a sure hand, while the plot gathers speed and power like a Himalayan avalanche. Rights (except electronic): A.P. Watt.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 372 pages
• Publisher: Henry Holt & Co; 1st trade ed edition (May 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0805051759
• ISBN-13: 978-0805051759
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.5 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (51 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,008,659 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not as good as Kerr's best, June 6, 2000

By 

Doug Vaughn - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Esau (Mass Market Paperback)

Philip Kerr is a writer of undeniable skill, but in Esau, his novel combining an expedition in search of the Abominable Snowman with an espionage/thriller subplot, he stretches credulity to the limit and leaves the reader longing for a more coherent story and more believable characters. The hero, for example, in order to satisfy his curiosity about a change in funding recommended by the National Geographic Society for his proposed expedition, breaks into the headquarters building in downtown Washington, DC so that he can rummage through the office of one of the decision makers. Does Kerr really expect that readers will think that risking a felony B&E charge to satify one's curiosity is normal - or even OK? There's a lot of over the top stuff like this in the book, and it makes it hard to relate to.

There is no question that Kerr is a writer of great talent in some ways. His prose is beautiful to the ear and he pulls off occasional passages as insightful and resonant as anything being written today. But Esau, taken as a whole, seems like a great idea gone awry.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Every rule has an exception, and this book is it., June 11, 2000

By 

taking a rest - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Esau (Hardcover)

"Never judge a book by its cover" (Except this one)

The first book I read by Mr. Kerr was "The Shot". I enjoyed the book and was impressed by the skill with which he was able to spin a new tale about a subject that has been beaten to death, revived, and beaten again, for almost 40 years. Had `ESAU" been the first of his works I had read, it most probably would have been the last.

The cover of the hardback does not give away the subject, the paperback is different artwork, and it is pretty blatant in exposing the story. If you are someone who is interested in the "Yeti, Abominable Snowman, Sasquatch, ESAU" you will enjoy the book. As he has done with the subject of "The Shot" he creates a new situation and adds great detail. I cannot stomach the subject so I never would have finished the book but for Mr. Kerr's writing.

I enjoy well-researched reading. Mr. Kerr does his homework and that was what kept me reading. Every time I was going to give up, some detail appeared and it was enough to keep me going. The ending can be anticipated a bit past the halfway mark, but again his style kept me reading.

Mr. Kerr writes some great dialogue. In this work I particularly enjoyed a lecture by a college professor, both for the way he wrote it and the information it contained. On the other end of the character spectrum he had a few CIA types that were awful, not one line of their story/subplot was needed, and the behavior by one at the close of the book was completely out of place, gratuitous, the real low water mark in the book.

So, I have read 2 of his books and it was 1 great read and then this very marginal work. So off I went and read "A Five Year Plan". Best of 3 would decide whether I bought anymore of this Author's work.

I read it and the review should be just behind this one.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent genre fiction, August 4, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Esau (Mass Market Paperback)

It may be junk-science, but Philip Kerr can do one thing that most of his thriller brethren cannot; write lucid prose. Essentially, this book races through a plot with no obvious filler or hokey phrasings that are common to most generic thrillers. It's a well-constructed story, the action coming directly from the needs of the plot, and the characters behaving appropriately, if dramatically.