The Hotel on the Roof of the World

When marketing wunderkind Alec Le Sueur signed on for a five-year stint at the Holiday Inn on the roof of the world in Lhasa, Tibet, no one told him the job required the wit and wisdom of a psychiatrist, the nose of an exterminator, the artistry of an emergency medical technician, and the diplomatic talent of a mortician. A staff trained with Fawlty Towers videos (until the comedies were seized by Communist authorities) served an eclectic mix of celebrities, diplomats, mountain climbers, spiritual pilgrims and cognoscenti circumnavigating the world in their own private jets. Le Sueur literally brings down the house with this internationally best-selling account of Communist owners and capitalist managers trying to create a chain hotel in Shangri-La.