{"product_id":"prisoner-of-urga","title":"Prisoner of Urga","description":"In this book of journeys-to enlightenment? to a way out of a terrible life crisis? to the Celestial Empire? to a meeting with the gods?-a holy fool of a character named Laszlo Krasznahorkai travels for days and days across the Gobi Desert by train. Past vistas of empty vastness worthy of Kafka's China, Laszlo enters into insoluble metaphysical thickets but finally gets beyond the Mongolian border and into Beijing. Always searching for contact with the divine, Laszlo struggles through terrifying traffic to holy sites and temples (as well as to an exclusive, horrifying restaurant). But only on Laszlo's very last night in China, at a famous Beijing theater, does he encounter the divine-in a most unlikely guise. The remarkable \u003cem\u003ePrisoner of Urga\u003c\/em\u003e, long overdue in English, is an early masterwork from the world's newest Nobelist-and a strange, chewy, and ever-surprising delight.   ","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57555353338229,"sku":"9780811240833","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/products\/prisoner-of-urga","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}