Colour: A Novel by Tremain, Rose - 2004

Picador, 2004. Paperback book is in new, never been read condition. No dust jacket. Inside of book pages are crisp and clean. Pictorial cover. No signs of wear or damage. Very very minor shelf wear on edges of papeback cover. ISBN 0312423101. Apr 2004 edition. Publisher: Picador. 400 pages long. Size: 8 by 5.5 by 1. BOOK DESCRIPTION: Readers familiar with British writer Tremain's magisterial historical novel, Restoration, or her psychologically acute study of madness, Music & Silence, will not be surprised at the accuracy of historical detail in this elegant and dramatic novel about the mid-19th-century gold rush in New Zealand or by her nuanced portrait of the disintegration of a marriage. Writing at the top of her form, she tells a complex story centering on two immigrants to New Zealand, whose recent marriage represents new hopes for both of them. Joseph Blackstone fled England to rid himself of memories of a shameful act; cold and secretive, he is emotionally constricted by guilt. Strong, spirited ex-governess Harriet Salt has narrowly avoided spinsterdom; to her, New Zealand represents the freedom to explore new horizons. Together with Joseph's mother, they attempt to build a farm on the flats outside of Christchurch, but when Joseph finds gold in the creek, he becomes obsessed by "the colour," as the fabulous metal is known. Abandoning both women, he travels by ship to the west coast, where he encounters hundreds of other desperate men and the clamorous, filthy, dehumanizing conditions in which they live. Later, when Harriet attempts to follow him by land, she cannot cross the gorge between the Southern Alps, justly called "the stairway from hell." By the time she does join him, each of them despises the other, yet the discovery of gold binds them in a new way. From this point on, the narrative, already full of subtleties and surprises, becomes riveting, as nature and human nature collide. There's a wonderful subplot about the mystical connection of a white boy and his Maori nurse, and an inspired depiction of a Chinese gardener who peddles his vegetables and becomes the instrument of Harriet's salvation. With its combination of vivid historical adventure and sensual, late-blooming romance, it's hard to see how this novel can miss winning a new audience for the immensely talented Tremain. *Starred Review* Most American readers are familiar with the California gold rush, for which both nonfiction and fictional treatments abound (for the latter, see Isabel Allende's Daughter of Fortune [1999] and Portrait in Sepia [2001]). But few will have even basic knowledge of the New Zealand gold rush of the same century. And while most appreciators of historical fiction will have previous reading experience with frontier novels, particularly those of the beloved Willa Cather, few will have encountered fictional depictions of immigrant life in the wilds of nineteenth-century New Zealand, where pioneers faced the same kind of excitement and tribulation--freedom with a price tag, in other words. Regardless, readers will be swept up here in the tale of a newly married couple, Joseph and Harriet Blackstone, who have left English shores to stake out a new life in the New Zealand wilderness. But gold--the "colour"--gets under Joseph's and Harriet's skin, and they are drawn to play out their destinies in light of how the discovery of gold releases them to their individual needs but separates them from their mutual ones.. First Printing. Trade Paperback. New/None. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall.