["The Mountain,"] Henri Troyat's vivid story of an Alpine climb and its tragic aftermath is one of the best this reader has encountered. It has the ring of authenticity from the start, its eerie fascination stems directly from the people and events it describes….

M. Troyat's plot is a simple one. A plane crashes on an almost unclimbable peak. Two brothers in a village half-way from the summit risk their lives to investigate the wreck…. What happens during their hair-raising ascent of the mountain's sheer north face is guaranteed to leave any reader limp with emotional exhaustion. What they discover on the summit, and how that discovery changes both their lives gives the novel its haunting and truly memorable climax.