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. High prices, high altitude, high jinks, and the ubiquitous Himalayan hamsters help turn the hotel into the set for a Tibetan situation comedy. Take a deep breath as you learn: The story of an Italian manager, who takes time out from bedding down hotel guests to spend a few nights sleeping with his wife, What happens when a pulse is found on an apparently deceased guest after staff has extracted an American Express card from his wallet to cover room charges, How Communist managers tried to break up the first Miss Tibet beauty pageant, The story behind the creation of the Hard Yak Cafe, a cash cow in a land badly in need of hard currency, Why Chinese owners insisted on turning off the heat in freezing weather when occupancy fell below 20 percent. The Hotel on the Roof of the World offers a rare, politically enlightening look at life behind the yak curtain and is a tribute to the heroic people of Tibet, who give all in their determination to make life at the top of the world a daily miracle. Book jacket.