Tourmaline - Softcover
A vividly imagined new novel from award-winning Scott. In the mid-1950s, an American family travels to an island off the coast of Italy to make a fortune in gemstones.
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About the Author:
Joanna Scott is the author of five novels, including the 1997 Pulitzer Prize finalist "The Manikin," the short story collection "Various Antidotes," which was a finalist for the 1995 PEN/Faulkner Award, and the critically acclaimed "Make Believe." She has received a MacArthur Fellowship and a Lannan Award. She lives in Rochester, New York.
From Publishers Weekly:
Napoleonic history, geology and a father's folly are woven together in this captivating novel by Scott (The Manikin; Make Believe). In 1956, extravagant, debt-ridden Murray Murdoch takes his wife and four young sons on a vacation to Elba, where he becomes convinced that he can profit from the island's abundant deposits of semiprecious gems. When the summer comes to an end and Murray still hasn't found the valuable tourmaline that he's looking for, the Murdochs decide to postpone their departure indefinitely. Their idyllic existence is shattered when a mysterious local girl goes missing and the community begins to suspect that the "investor from the United States" is somehow involved. The story is told by Ollie, the youngest of the four boys, who was five when the family arrived on the island and is 50 now. His memories are shaded by both a child's imagination and an adult's nostalgia, which allows Scott to explore some of the less straightforward aspects of the story. Entranced by the island's beauty, the boys communicate without speaking, and their mother, Claire, becomes uncharacteristically dreamy and distant. Murray's hunt for treasure grows increasingly desperate and futile, and finally, in an attempt to escape his responsibilities, he disappears on a three-day drinking binge. A few of Scott's departures from traditional narrative are tiresome, especially the pages devoted to the inner thoughts of an elderly British historian as he dies, but details of Elba's rich history, and particularly of Napoleon's exile there, are artfully woven into the narrative. This is an absorbing picture of a family rediscovering themselves in a foreign land.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
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- PublisherCHERCHE MIDI
- Publication date2008
- ISBN 10 2749103215
- ISBN 13 9782749103211
- BindingPaperback
- Number of pages295
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Tourmaline
Published by
LE CHERCHE MIDI
(2008)
ISBN 10: 2749103215
ISBN 13: 9782749103211
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Book Description Paperback. Condition: NEUF. Au milieu des années cinquante, Murray Murdoch quitte les États-Unis pour l'île d'Elbe, accompagné de sa femme et de leurs quatre enfants. Bien décidé à tirer un trait sur ses échecs professionnels, il veut se lancer dans le commerce de la tourmaline, cette pierre semi-précieuse, que " l'homme a toujours cherchée, quand il ne savait plus quoi chercher ". Bercé par les charmes et les langueurs de la vie insulaire et d'autochtones pittoresques, tel cet exilé anglais qui n'en finit pas d'écrire et de réécrire l'ouvrage "définitif" sur Napoléon à Elbe, Murdoch va finalement découvrir un autre trésor en la personne d'une jeune beauté de l'île, Adriana, pour laquelle il ressent une étrange attirance. Quand la jeune fille disparaît, les événements se précipitent et Murdoch devient le principal suspect, aux yeux des habitants de l'île, de ses amis, de sa propre famille. Cinquante ans plus tard, son plus jeune fils revient sur l'île, dans l'espoir de faire la lumière sur cette affaire jamais élucidée qui a causé la perte de sa famille. Outre une intrigue admirablement menée, Joanna Scott nous offre une réflexion passionnante sur la nature humaine. Que peut-on savoir d'un proche ? Peut-on atteindre à la vérité d'un être, qu'il soit empereur ou tout simplement père de famille ? Ne sommes-nous pas tous semblables à ces minéraux dont l'apparence se modifie en fonction de la lumière à laquelle on les expose ? - Nombre de page(s) : 1 vol. (295 p.) - Poids : 374g - Langue : fre - Genre : Littérature Anglo-Saxonne Lot 49. Seller Inventory # N9782749103211
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