When the widow of my old martial arts master
asked me to write his biography, my nervous tic
immediately went into action: my mouth went
open and closed, open and closed. She asked
me very directly, no small talk, as soon as I
walked into her house in Kunming, the capital
of Yunnan province. She caught me by surprise,
and not thinking it through I just said yes right
away. But if I had known the kind of trouble it
would bring me, I would have very politely
declined the invitation.
A fast-paced, engaging novel of suspense and intrigue where secret desires, ambitions, and a long-forgotten mystery come together on a historical journey through Europe and Asia.
When Lucas Vascones attends the funeral of his old martial arts master, Alfred Tang, he receives an unusual request from Tang’s widow: to write Tang’s biography. As he pores through old boxes of papers, photos and manuscripts, Lucas discovers a journal filled with notes, a picture of the sixteenth century Jesuit missionary Mateo Ricci and a beautiful colored drawing of an ancient library. As he works to decipher the hidden messages in his master’s journal, Lucas embarks on a journey through Asia and Europe, where he will uncover the truth about Tang’s life and unravel a mystery that has been buried for centuries.
Trying to understand the hidden messages in his former teacher's notebook, Lucas will travel through Asia and Europe in search of a truth buried by time.