Lost Horizon

Lost Horizon is a 1933 novel by the English writer James Hilton. The book was adapted into a film, also called Lost Horizon, in 1937 by director Frank Capra; and a musical film remake in 1973 by producer Ross Hunter with music by Burt Bacharach. It is the origin of Shangri-La, a fictional utopian lamasery located high in the mountains of Tibet. The novel has a frame story set in Berlin, where a neurologist obtains a manuscript which records the narrative of a British diplomat who had disappeared in China. The main narrative depicted in the manuscript starts in May 1931 within the British Raj. There is a revolution in the country and several people are evacuated. A number of them are transported in a maharaja's aircraft, but the plane is hijacked. After a crash landing, the four surviving passengers are guided to Shangri-La in the Kuen-Lun mountain range.