Evelyn in Transit

Guterson (The Final Case) offers a moving account of the entwined lives of an American woman and a Tibetan monk. Evelyn Bednarz grows up in the 1960s feeling restless in her small Indiana town. At 18, she leaves home and hitchhikes across the country. Interested in Buddhism, she stops at a Buddhist retreat center in New Mexico, where she carries heavy limestone to help build their temple in exchange for a place to stay. Back on the road, she meets a man named Scott in a bus station. They travel together and become lovers, until he makes the abrupt decision to leave her. She then discovers she’s pregnant and heads back home to Indiana to raise her son, Cliff. A parallel narrative follows Tsering Lepka, who’s raised by monks in the Tibetan mountains and declared to be the sixth incarnation of their monastery’s late leader. Unsure if he can spend the rest of his life on a throne, he leaves for the U.S., where he translates Tibetan manuscripts for a Seattle professor. A few years later, Evelyn receives unexpected and miraculous news that might link Cliff, now five, with Tsering. The narrative feels a bit aimless, but the ending, in which Evelyn finally finds a sense of purpose, is deeply satisfying. The author’s fans will appreciate this subtle tale of spiritual seeking. (Jan.)