Beyond the House of the False Lama - by George Crane (Paperback)

From the Back Cover

Beyond the House of the Lama, now in paperback, traces Crane's adventures as a writer, wanderer, and anarchic but still failing student of Zen. It begins in 1996 at the edge of the Gobi Desert in Inner Mongolia, where he and his teacher and friend, Zen Master Tsung Tsai, are forced by a sandstorm to end their quest to find the lost temple at Two Wolf Mountain. It continues with a harrowing, near disastrous attempt to deliver a ratty, 58 foot ferrous cement sailboat to Granada. Setting sail from Key Largo into the heart of hurricane season, with a crew of eccentrics and outlaws, led by the infamous Captain Bananas. They run with a disintegrating sailboat into the perfect squall. The tale ends in the winter of 2003, when after weeks of desert travel, Crane and his companions---the nomad Jumaand and the young, beautiful Mongol girl Oka, his bed mate and bodyguard---stand beneath the remote cliffs of Delgaz Khaan in Outer Mongolia's South Gobi. Here, Crane, after burying his long dead father, sets out on a new quest, looking to find what the nomads call Windhorse, "the beginning of the wind," but finds what every nomad knows, that every road is more a direction than a destination.

Review Quotes

"A finely crafted prose poem of a book that sparkles with the wisdom born of anguish and longing." - Stephen Batchelor, author of Living with the Devil
"A finely crafted prose poem of a book that sparkles with the wisdom born of anguish and longing." - Stephen Batchelor, author of Living with the Devil
"Crane's gusto, frank humor, and compassion make his down-to-earth Zen an antidote to many ills." - Booklist
"Part travelogue, part poetry and part philosophical thesis, this book reveals the author's conflicting reflections about life with candor and humor. Crane's story is engaging throughout...shadowing Jack Kerouac's On the Road. If you've ever wondered whether your quest 'is more a direction than a mere destination, ' read this." - Dallas Morning News
"If you've ever wondered whether your quest 'is more a direction than a mere destination, ' read this." - Dallas Morning News