For four months and five hundred miles Colin Thubron walked the mountains of Lebanon, following tracks and rivers. His journey was not only a survey of a remarkable country, but a quest for the gods and divinities who held the secrets of death and rebirth in the land's ancient cults.

He visited almost every place of cultural importance, and lived with the people along his way, recording a country of outstanding natural scenery, rich with a unique medley of races and religions. The Hills of Adonis is both a travel book and a personal journal; for the quest is the search for meaning, a reflection on faith and reason and a poem on the joy and complexity of living.