The Wondrous Elixir of the Two Chinese Lovers

by Tim McGirk

Ned Sheehan, an archaeologist, has spent years hacking through the jungles of southern Mexico with little more to show for it than a few broken Maya pots. But his luck takes a dramatic – and dangerous – turn when he uncovers two tombs whose occupants are Chinese and an ocean away from where they should be. One tomb belongs to Xu Fu, a famous Taoist priest who vanished on a quest for the elixir of immortality at the behest of China’s First Emperor. The other houses the emperor’s own mother, scandalously revealed to have been Xu Fu’s lover.

For Sheehan, this is proof of transoceanic links between the ancient civilizations of China and the Maya. But to his dismay, news of the elixir is all anyone cares about. It attracts a dangerous mix of New Age crackpots, religious cultists, and tomb robbers in league with a Mexican drug cartel. All of them believe that the tomb’s clay tablets – the priest’s enigmatic and often bawdy memoir – contain a formula for the long-sought elixir. This modern-day detective story is woven into Xu Fu’s own account of how he was plucked from a celibate life in a monastery to sail across the Pacific Ocean in search of Penglai, the fabled Isle of the Immortals.

354 pages, Paperback

Published July 31, 2025

Reviews

[Kenny Schwarz · Rating 4 out of 5]

In full disclosure this is my uncle’s book and his debut novel! So admittedly I’m too biased for a regular review. I’m Quite proud of him for his good work on this book!

[Ralph Lombreglia · Rating 5 out of 5]

For his excellent first novel, Tim McGirk has resurrected an ancient story structure you don’t see enough these days--the tale within a tale. He uses the "outer" tale to tell a charmingly detailed story of a comically inept archaeologist who literally stumbles upon the tombs of a scandalous Chinese Empress and her lover, a lowly monk.

These graves would have been an amazing discovery had Ned Sheehan, the archaeologist, found them in China. In fact, he makes his history-shattering find in Mexico—an impossibility given the historical realities we know today. In real life, Ned would become famous and win the heart of his on-again, off-again filmmaker girlfriend, Desiree. In WONDROUS ELIXIR, McGirk has better-deserved plans for him.

The "inner" tale is a different experience altogether—Xu Fu’s (the monk's) account, preserved on clay tablets found in his tomb, of his adventures and travels with the lusty Empress. These tablets are translated by a young, attractive Chinese scholar who finds out about them by intercepting a letter that Ned sends to her academic department. We can’t help but feel that this interception was not accidental, and of course the young scholar, Li Siquin, is quickly on a plane to complicate things in Mexico even further.

McGirk has great fun cataloging Ned's close-to-slapstick adventures with Desiree, the alluring foxy scholar (Li Siquin), his department chairman back in the States, grave robbers, drug lords and the Mexican police. Yet the novel's most lasting pleasures come from the author's balance of the contemporary action with the contrasting voice of Xu Fu, whose inner story tells a tale from long ago, before commerce stole the soul of the world.

[Leonard Commet · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the best novel I’ve read all year. The smashing together of Taoist China and the Maya, circa 225 BCE, in a trans-oceanic political-comedic-romantic thriller (tombs, boats, murder, court-intrigues galore) is fun and the research behind it seems deep – I’m no expert haha but I feel like I learned a lot. You just cruise along on parallel ancient/modern adventures as our hero, the sometimes comically lost narrator, tries to piece together the story of ancient star-crossed lovers. It’s a last-ditch attempt to goose his sagging university career, with what may be competing academics breathing down his neck. A great ride. Highly recommended.

[tj · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a unique and engaging read. I was completely pulled into the world McGirk created. The shifts between the chase sequences in Mexico and the historical journey of Xu Fu kept me hooked the whole way through. It’s a fun, engrossing story with a lot of heart.

As a surfer myself, I really appreciated how authentically the protagonist was written. that mindset is not easy to capture without feeling cliché, but he nailed it. You can also tell the author has a background in journalism; the way he describes getting caught in sticky situations felt gritty and real. It brought a layer of truth that made the adventure feel totally believable.

[D. Rutherford · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tim McGirk has written a romp of a novel, bringing together an unlikely cast of protagonists: a feckless American archaeologist, a beautiful Chinese epigrapher, a disgraced empress, and a humble monk. Sometimes silly, sometimes moving, but always wise, this fast-paced tale within a tale of love, lust, and the pursuit of power was hard to put down.

[Marieceline S. Mercado · Rating 5 out of 5]

a clever page-turner

An elegantly written, cleverly plotted book that transports you in time and space, with many twists and turns. An excellent read.