Mammoths at the Gates is the fourth novella in the Singing Hills Cycle by Nghi Vo.
Finished on: 15.9.2024
[Here are my reviews of the other books in the Cycle.]

Plot:
Cleric Chih returns home to the Singing Hills abbey for the first time in three years, having spent their time collecting stories. They are looking forward to their home and to seeing Almost Brilliant but on arrival, they realize that a lot has changed. There are troups, including two mammoths, at the gates of the abbey, their mentor Cleric Thien has died and their best friend is suddenly in charge. There is grief everywhere, and it leads to difficulties.

Mammoths at the Gates is a little different from the other three novellas in the Cycle so far, in that it is less about story-telling and more about memory and grief, though story-telling and memory are, of course, inextricably linked. But much like the other novellas, it is a thoughtful, touching thing of beauty.

Where the other three novellas so far featured a lot of stories and legends and how those stories are told and by whom, with Chih the receptacle of the stories, Mammoths at the Gates is more personal to them. It is the story of Thien, yes, and their neixin Myriad Virtues, but it is also the story of Chih and their past and their current grief. I really liked that we got a glimpse at their personal life, and at the life and work of clerics in general.

This sets the novella apart a little from the others, but it’s not something that I minded because Vo handles the themes of this one just as beautifully as she handled the story-telling aspects. The different shapes of grief that the stories cover, and the question also of who we allow to grieve and how, are shown with a lot of sensitivity. I was deeply touched.

But it’s not like it’s a total departure from the topics that the Cycle moves around. Questions of grief are linked to questions of memory, and memory is also always in the stories we tell. The things that everybody remembers about Thien, the many aspects of their personality – that works very well with the questions about story-telling the series raised so far.

I am almost caught up with the Cycle. I hope it continues, though, because they all hold a very special place in my heart.

Summarizing: beautiful.