Transcript / LoLT: The Lost Tomb of Genghis Khan and Two New Books — 26 July 2024

This is a transcription of LoLT: The Lost Tomb of Genghis Khan and Two New Books — 26 July 2024

[cheerful music]

Melissa: Coming up, the true story of everybody’s favorite singing nun.

David: Dark historical fantasy in the Italian renaissance.

Melissa: Plus, our distraction of the week. I’m Mel.

David: I’m Dave. This is the library of lost time.

Melissa: Anyone who’s listened to our Strong Sense of Place episode about the theater knows that I love musicals. [DAVE] And my favorite might be The Sound of Music. The stage musical was built around music by Richard Rodgers and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein. They based their story on a memoir written by the real-life Maria von Trapp from 1949. I played the eldest daughter Leisel in our high school production of The Sounds of Music when I was, in fact, 16 going on 17. The boy who played Rolf was also a football player. It was a very Disney High School Musical situation.

Melissa: Live is great. But! My heart belongs to the film version from 1965 starring Julie Andrews as Maria. First of all, Julie Andrews is a goddess. Second, songs like ‘I Have Confidence’ and ‘Do Re Mi’ are bangers! And finally, there is no smolder like the smolder between Maria and the Captain when they do the traditional dance at the big party. I mean…

Melissa: All of which to say, I am primed to enjoy the new book ‘Maria: A Novel of Maria von Trapp’ by Michelle Moran.

Melissa: In real life, Rodgers and Hammerstein took some liberties with the true story to write their musical. This novel set in the 1950s, just before the Broadway debut of the show, imagines the real-life Maria’s reaction when she reads the script. It’s not a spoiler to say that she’s not happy with it. She wants to set the record straight about what REALLY happened in the von Trapp mansion. So she stikes up a friendship with Hammerstein’s secretary, and Maria tells her story, the way it really happened.

Melissa: The book opens with a prologue. It’s a letter from Maria to Oscar Hammerstein, and the voice is SO Maria. I can hear Julie Andrews reading it. It says, in part, In January, I will be 55 years old. If statistics ae to be believed, I can anticipate living another 20 years. It is my deepest wich not to spend those remaining years explaining how I never escaped from Austria by crossing the Alps into Switzerland, or how my eldest stepchild Rupert has never been a 16-year-old girl named Leisel.’ She goes on to say she wants a meeting because she has, quote, ‘several ideas on how the script can be fixed.’

Melissa: Then the action moves to the Hamptons where we meet Fran and Oscar Hammerstein, and we’re off to the races. This feels like an excellent summer read — snappy dialogue, girls with moxie, and vividly rendered settings in 1950s New York and WWII Austria.

Melissa: I should also mention that we’re in good hands with this author. She’s written eight historical novels that tell the untold story of remarkable women, including Mata Hari, Nefertiti, and Madame Tussaud. This one is ‘Maria: A Novel of Maria von Trapp’ by Michelle Moran.

David: Paulo Bacigalupi is a fantasy author. He’s maybe best known for his first book, ‘The Wind-Up Girl.’ That’s set in a future Bangkok. The main character is a genetically engineered being, beautiful and almost magical, built to satisfy the whims of a Japanese businessman. The book had a lot to say about corporations controlling food, among other things. It did very well — it won a Hugo and a Nebula and was one of TIME’s top 10 books of the year. The author’s latest is out. It’s called ‘Navola.’

David: It’s a story set in something close to a Renaissance Italian city-state. One of the reviewers called it, ‘dark historical fiction — with a hint of dragon.’ The story centers around the only son of a banking family. They are Medici-adjacent. Schemers. They are really good at it. They travel in a dangerous world. They have accountants and assassins on staff.

David: At the beginning of ‘Navola,’ the son is portrayed as naive, especially considering his family’s nature. As the story unfolds, it becomes a coming-of-age tale with a dark and violent trajectory. Reviewers have praised the beautiful writing style and compared the narrative to a blend of ‘The Godfather’ and ‘Dune,’ with the atmosphere of Florence in the 1500s. I’m curious to see what it’s about. Maybe you are too. It came out a couple of weeks ago. It’s ‘Navola’from Paulo Bacigalupi.

David: And now, our Distraction of the Week.

David: Last week we released our Strong Sense of Place episode on Mongolia. Before we leave the steppes, I wanted to discuss something we didn’t have time for in the main show. And that’s the tomb of Genghis Kahn.

David: Genghis died in 1227. His remains are one of history’s great secrets. There has been much speculation and research, but we have no idea where his final resting spot is. There are stories. Some of the stories might even be true.

David: Kahn died in what is now China. He was on a military campaign. He was spreading his unique brand of terror when, we think, he died from the bubonic plague. There are also stories that he might have died from battle wounds, or being hit by lightning, or perhaps he was stabbed by a Chinese princess. But. 1227 we’re all pretty sure about.

David: According to legend, Genghis Kahn wanted to be buried in secret. No markers. And he wanted to be buried in Mongolia. So his army picked his corpse up, and I imagine with great sorrow and reverence, carried him the 300 miles back to the Mongolian border, and then — we think — to a mountain that was important to him, somewhere to the north and east of Ulaanbaatar. To maintain secrecy, that army killed everyone they met on the way.

David: According to Macro Polo, Kahn had a lavish funeral there. 2,000 slaves attended. When the funeral was over, to ensure the secrecy of his burial spot, those slaves were executed by soldiers. When the soldiers were done, they were executed by a group of assassins. When the assassins were done, they killed themselves.

David: This somehow seems weirdly appropriate for a man who’s said to be responsible for the deaths of about 40 million people. Or about 1 in 6 people on the earth at the time.

David: There’s a story that a river was diverted to cover his tomb. Another says a forest was planted on top of it. We think that he was probably buried about 20m meters — or about 65 feet — underground in a log chamber because we’ve seen other Mongolian tombs from that era. He was likely buried with an impressive collection of gold and jewelry and artifacts from his empire. ‘Untold wealth’is what people like to say.

David: There is a tribe of Mongolians, the Darkhad, who claim to be the guardians of Genghis Khan’s spirit and the area believed to be his burial site. They have claimed this role for almost 800 years. During that time, they defended the area from grave robbers and outsiders. They say they don’t know the exact location of the tomb.

David: More than a few explorers and researchers have searched for the tomb. Recent attempts, including one by National Geographic, have used satellite imagery, and ground-penetrating radar. So far, we’re still looking. Despite their solid cultural reverence for Genghis Kahn, Mongolians seem okay with the tomb remaining lost.

David: A BBC reporter did an article on the tomb a couple of years ago. He asked his guide about it. She said, ‘They went through all that effort to hide his tomb… Opening it now would violate his wishes.’

Melissa: Visit strongsenseofplace.com/library for more on the books we talked about today and more on the mystery of Genghis Khan’s lost tomb.

David: Thanks for joining us on the library of last time. Remember to visit your local library and your independent bookstore to lose some time yourself.

Melissa: Stay curious. We’ll talk to you soon.

[cheerful music]

Top image courtesy of JonasKIM.