Ever since Cain and Abel, fraternal rivalry has haunted us. In Thin Air, a troubled doctor narrates an attempt in 1935 by five Englishmen on Kangchenjunga, the Himalayan mountain more deadly than Everest. Led by Stephen’s popular older brother Kits, a conventional sahib, it’s a ghost story to chill and thrill. Ascending the peak, the rifts both social and geographical deepen. As in Paver’s prize-winning Dark Matter, the public-school men dislike the grammar-school one. A rucksack belonging to a dead mountaineer appears to follow them. Are they haunted by a “psychic imprint” from a doomed Edwardian expedition? Is it optical illusion? Or is a victim of previous murderous snobbery now menacing the group? Paver excels at suggesting the evil in nature and in men’s minds. The ice “creaking and groaning”, the shimmering mountain “like seen music” luring the expedition on, are vividly described. Like Touching the Void rewritten by Jack London, Thin Air is a heart-freezing masterpiece.
Thin Air is published by Orion (£12.99). Click here to buy it for £10.65
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