The Tree of the Doves - by Christopher Merrill (Hardcover)

About the Book

Taking several ageless questions--"Where do we come from? Where are we going? What shall we do?"--as his point of departure, award-winning author Christopher Merrill explores the related issues of terror, modernity, tradition, and epochal transformation. In three extended essays, Merrill observes the performance of a banned ritual in the Malaysian province of Kelatan; traces Saint-John Perse's epic voyage from Beijing to Ulan Bator in 1921, and relates it to the China of today; and embarks on a trip across the Levant in 2007 in the wake of the American wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Merrill asserts that it is in this trinity of human actions--ceremony, expedition, and war--that history is formed; and that the political, environmental, and social changes we're witnessing now presage the end of one order and the creation of another.

Book Synopsis

Composed in the key of terror, The Tree of the Doves offers an engaging account of Christopher Merrill's travels to distant parts of the world. From jungle to desert to sea, from cities to ruins, he explores how history is shaped by ceremonies, expeditions, and wars.

He observes the performance of a banned ritual in Malaysia, retraces Saint-John Perse's epic journey from Beijing to Ulaanbaatar, and tours the Levant in the wake of the American wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Encountering a wide range of people along the way--artists and politicians, soldiers and refugees--Merrill is as attentive to their individuality as he is attuned to the historical, social, and cultural situations in which they find themselves.

In three extended essays, he poses fundamental but nonetheless provocative questions­­--Where do we come from? Where are we going? What shall we do?--which lead him to conclude that the changes we are witnessing now presage the end of one order and the creation of another.

Lively and insightful, empathetic and illuminating, The Tree of the Doves is an important book, as contemporary as it is timeless.