Book review: Deep engagement with Himalayas, empathy for conservation

Stephen Alter describes his book on the Himalayas as “A Natural History of the Greatest Mountain Range on Earth” but it is much more than that. Across nearly 400 densely packed pages, grouped in eight sections and 50 chapters, Alter turns biographer, narrating the incredible tale of the mountain range, almost in stream of consciousness style, mixing science with legend, history with myths and personal affinity with how others have related to its varied landscape of intense fecundity and frozen desolation.

The author begins by restoring the original Sanskritic singularity to the mountainscape. This enables one to look upon the entire