Shangri-La is a mysterious place beautiful, but slightly eerie too, I thought. Seeking shelter at the nearby lamasery (a monastery for lamas) known as Shangri-La, the group asked for help to continue their journey to Peshawar, but as the days and weeks went by and no help arrived, Conway began to wonder whether their presence at the lamasery was really an accident – and whether they would ever be able to leave.

The pilot was killed but the passengers survived. What Conway tells Rutherfurd, however, is that the plane was hijacked and flown in a different direction, stopping once to refuel and finally crashing to the ground in a mountain valley somewhere in Tibet. The plane was supposedly heading for Peshawar, but it never arrived and its four passengers were believed to be dead. Conway has been suffering from amnesia but as his memories start to return, he tells Rutherford a long and remarkable story.ĭuring a revolution in Baskul, Conway, who was the British consul at the time, was evacuated by plane along with three other people. The two find themselves discussing a mutual acquaintance, Hugh Conway, who had disappeared under unusual circumstances only to be discovered by Rutherford several months later in a hospital in China. We begin with a prologue in which the narrator is having dinner with a novelist friend, Rutherford. It’s a fascinating story and very absorbing – I started it on a Saturday and was finished by Sunday at just over 200 pages it’s a quick read but also the sort of book that leaves the reader with a lot to think about after the final page is turned. Published in 1933, Lost Horizon is the novel which introduced into popular culture the idea of Shangri-La as a sort of earthly paradise. I’ve read some great books already and this is another one. I’m very happy with the way my reading is going so far this year.

James hilton's 1933 novel lost horizon