"A novel of profound intelligence and wit, deftly weaving history and myth, male and female, East and West, agony and splendour. In the Fabled East is a stunning book." -- Annabel Lyon, author of The Golden Mean

"A sublime and often hilarious travel adventure." -- TORO Magazine

From one of Canada's best young voices, comes a sweeping literary adventure set against the backdrop of French Indochina.

Paris, 1909: Adelie Tremier, a young widow suffering the final stages of tuberculosis, flees for French-occupied Indochina, through the lush forests of Laos, to seek out a fabled spring of immortality that might allow her to return to her nine-year-old son.

Laos, 1936: Pierre Lazarie, a young academic turned Saigon bureaucrat, is sent by Adelie's son, now an Army captain, to find his longlost mother. Although his assigned quest fulfills Pierre's fantasy to travel up the exotic Mekong, he is saddled with his colleague Henri LeDallic, an Indochina old-timer who would rather glory in his loutish past than hunt for ghosts in the jungle. Yet what this mismatched pair discovers forms the mysterious heart of Adam Lewis Schroeder's brilliant and compelling new novel.

Bridging history from 1890s Aix-en-Provence to American involvement in 1950s Vietnam, In the Fabled East is a rich and sensual depiction of Southeast Asia, charting the loss of innocence of both individuals and the world at large. Echoing Graham Greene and Joseph Conrad, this is historical fiction written with wisdom and panache.

Adam Lewis Schroeder was born in BC, completed a Master's degree in Creative Writing at the University of British Columbia and has since traveled extensively. He is the author of the story collection Kingdom of Monkeys and the novel Empress of Asia, nominated for the Amazon.ca/Books in Canada First Novel Award and the BC Book Awards' Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize. In the Fabled East was first released in March 2010 to great review. He lives in Penticton with his wife and two sons.

Adam Schroeder's profile page

• Short-listed, Commonwealth Writers' Prize: Best Book, Canada & the Caribbean