The Sands of Karakorum Author:James Ramsey Ullman The Sands of Karakorum is a step by James Ullman into a new dimension of writing, and one of the most unusual novels of this, or any other, season. In its outer framework, it is a tale of movement, of suspense, of search. John and Eleanor Bickel, American missionaries, have vanished into the maw of Red China, and Frank Knight, in the dual role o... more »f old friend and newspaper correspondent, sets out to find them. The trail leads darkly, tortuously, from Shanghai, through the obscure byways of interior China and into the remote heartland of Central Asia. It ends-or almost ends-in the 'desert of the black sands' where lie the ruins of Karakorum, the ancient capital of Genghis Khan. It is however, far more than the account of a mere physical journey. And its 'search' is for more than two individuals who are lost. Exactly what it is that Frank Knight and the Bickles seek--and find-is a matter each reader will have to decide for himself. It is a story of mood and emotion, of tension and mounting teror and eep imaginatieve power. But, above all, it is a story of man's faith and hope in the wasteland of a darkened world. His fable of the black sands, says Mr. Ullman, has haunted him for many years. Now that he has at last set it down, it should haunt many another as well--long after the last page has been turned.« less