Vodafone Crossword Fiction Award Winner 1998 In the small town of Drummondganj under the shadow of the Himalayas stands the Everest, once an exclusive hotel now a home for the unwanted run by a small community of nuns. The owner, Jed, sometime mountaineer and flower-hunter, ninety but still smouldering, lives on the roof from where he looks out across thecemetery at his beloved snows. Obsessed with writing the , he sees no visitors, except his neighbour anddisciple, the footloose bodybuilder Brij. The arrival of Ritu, a young nun assigned to look after Jed skews matters. But it is the entry of another newcomer Inge, a German neo-Nazi in search of her uncle''s grave that strains the equilibrium of life at the Everest. One night the balance tips when Thapa the gurkha''s razor-sharp kukri disappears from its nail on the wall.