Nick Middleton (the Narrator)

The author-narrator is a curious, observant and determined traveller. He notices the smallest details of landscape and life — the shape of clouds, the collars on the mastiffs, the grease smeared on a café table — and records them with vivid, often humorous language. He is adventurous and persistent, willing to cross high snow-blocked passes and to press on despite headaches, punctures and illness in pursuit of the kora. He is also honest about his own weakness: he admits his fear during the sleepless night, his gloom when Darchen turns out to have no pilgrims, and his poor progress with 'positive thinking'. His dry wit — comparing a bal …