THE KARMA KILLERS
A Novel
by
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The LoDownwith Alex Lo Thriller from HK’s own Angelo Paratico is The Da Vinci Code with a karma twist Move over, Dan Brown. My favourite writer of thrillers – Hong Kong’s very own Angelo Paratico – has a new book out. Actually, The Karma Killers is an old novel, newly translated into English from the original Italian. The plot is, as usual, convoluted and erudite, about an Italian spy who goes to Tibet () to explore the missing 18 years of Jesus’ from the Gospels while trying prevent a coup d’état and a nuclear war involving Beijing and Kim Jong-il – or something like that. “It is a mystic thriller,” Angelo said of his 2004 novel. “Jesus disappears from the four Gospels when he is still a boy of 12, preaching to the doctors at the Temple. Then on the next page he is a grown man of 30 years. What happened to him for 18 years? Nobody knows, and from there many theories have sprung: for some he spent his time with the Essenes [a Jewish sect] in the desert, who had contacts with East. It is well known that the points of contact between the first Christians and Buddhists are many. Or did he travel to India or even further up to Tibet?” Paratico believes there is something to that theory. “The Tibetan variant of his trips had a stronger revival when Nicolas Notovitch, an obscure Russian explorer, in the years 1877-78 went to Hemis Gompa, near Leh, in Ladakh, also known as ‘Little Tibet’, and now part of Indian Kashmir. He broke a leg falling from his horse and, while staying at that Tibetan monastery, [he said] the abbot one day spoke to him about certain rolls containing the record of a trip of Jesus to India and Tibet. Notovitch asked to see them, and the abbot did agree to let him take notes while reading them to him. After he returned to Europe he set aside his notes, but a few years later, against the advice of a cardinal close to the pope, in 1894, he decided to print them under the title La Vie Inconnue de Jesus-Christ en Inde et au Tibet [in English The Unknown Life of Jesus Christ]. “It was a roaring success, and that book was translated into several languages; the Aquarii [a Christian sect] accepted it as true, but some critics started to point out discrepancies, and claimed that he lied, among the Max Muller, the famous Orientalist. Someone went back to Hemis and the abbot denied everything.” The protagonist in The Karma Killersaround 1997 retraces the journey of Notovitch, and gets himself and his wife involved in a coup involving thermonuclear weapons. The book has made Paratico a celebrity in a small Italian village. “I put together an old legend going around in south Italy, concerning the plate of birth of Pontius Pilate. I put it in the village of Bisenti in the Abruzzo region, where there are Roman ruins known as ‘Pilate’s home’. Old legends there speak of Pilate and Longinus [who pierced Jesus’ side] living for many years and meeting [every] Easter to curse each other. “After this book was published, it made me popular in that small village.” [South China Morning Post, Hong Kong, 25 July 2009]
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About the Book
Giacomo and Livia Salvi are given stern warnings as they prepare to journey from Nepal to Tibet. Even though they are tourists, they must be wary of the People’s Liberation Army and avoid any mention of the Dalai Lama.
Before journeying through the mountains, however, they meet an old Tibetan monk. Milerpa is considered to be the reincarnation of an eleventh-century holy hermit. It’s said he can fall into a trance and relive events as they happened in the past. And he tells Giacomo, a scholar researching Jesus’s life, that it’s very possible the prophet traveled to the Far East.
Giacomo and his wife are thrilled to receive a hint of what Jesus might have done during his missing eighteen years. But once they cross the Tibetan border, they find themselves being followed. Although Giacomo’s true mission is unknown to his wife, it isn’t long before his role as a sleeper Italian spy is affecting their every move.
Join Giacomo as he seeks to unravel the mystery of Jesus’s lost years, protect his true identity and prevent a nuclear war that could lead to the end of the world in The Karma Killers.
About the Author
Angelo Paratico, a native of Italy, has lived in Hong Kong the past 26 years. He is a columnist for the daily newspaper Secolo d'Italia, which is published in Rome and details his adventures in the Pacific region. The Karma Killers was first published in Italian. The LoDown with Alex Lo Thriller from HK’s own Angelo Paratico is The Da Vinci Code with a karma twist Move over, Dan Brown. My favourite writer of thrillers – Hong Kong’s very own Angelo Paratico – has a new book out. Actually, The Karma Killers is an old novel, newly translated into English from the original Italian. The plot is, as usual, convoluted and erudite, about an Italian spy who goes to Tibet () to explore the missing 18 years of Jesus’ from the Gospels while trying prevent a coup d’état and a nuclear war involving Beijing and Kim Jong-il – or something like that. “It is a mystic thriller,” Angelo said of his 2004 novel. “Jesus disappears from the four Gospels when he is still a boy of 12, preaching to the doctors at the Temple. Then on the next page he is a grown man of 30 years. What happened to him for 18 years? Nobody knows, and from there many theories have sprung: for some he spent his time with the Essenes [a Jewish sect] in the desert, who had contacts with East. It is well known that the points of contact between the first Christians and Buddhists are many. Or did he travel to India or even further up to Tibet?” Paratico believes there is something to that theory. “The Tibetan variant of his trips had a stronger revival when Nicolas Notovitch, an obscure Russian explorer, in the years 1877-78 went to Hemis Gompa, near Leh, in Ladakh, also known as ‘Little Tibet’, and now part of Indian Kashmir. He broke a leg falling from his horse and, while staying at that Tibetan monastery, [he said] the abbot one day spoke to him about certain rolls containing the record of a trip of Jesus to India and Tibet. Notovitch asked to see them, and the abbot did agree to let him take notes while reading them to him. After he returned to Europe he set aside his notes, but a few years later, against the advice of a cardinal close to the pope, in 1894, he decided to print them under the title La Vie Inconnue de Jesus-Christ en Inde et au Tibet [in English The Unknown Life of Jesus Christ]. “It was a roaring success, and that book was translated into several languages; the Aquarii [a Christian sect] accepted it as true, but some critics started to point out discrepancies, and claimed that he lied, among the Max Muller, the famous Orientalist. Someone went back to Hemis and the abbot denied everything.” The protagonist in The Karma Killersaround 1997 retraces the journey of Notovitch, and gets himself and his wife involved in a coup involving thermonuclear weapons. The book has made Paratico a celebrity in a small Italian village. “I put together an old legend going around in south Italy, concerning the plate of birth of Pontius Pilate. I put it in the village of Bisenti in the Abruzzo region, where there are Roman ruins known as ‘Pilate’s home’. Old legends there speak of Pilate and Longinus [who pierced Jesus’ side] living for many years and meeting [every] Easter to curse each other. “After this book was published, it made me popular in that small village.” [South China Morning Post, Hong Kong, 25 July 2009]