The Rose Crossing
A Novel
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- $13.99
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
"A fable, set in the 17th century, filled with vivid evocations of another time [and] wonderfully peculiar characters." —Kirkus Reviews
To escape Puritan England, naturalist Edward Popple signs on to be a ship's doctor on a journey across the Indian Ocean, and his daughter, Rosamund, stows away to accompany him. But a wreck leaves them stranded on an island off the coast of Africa.
Amid the lush vegetation, the birds and the sea turtles, father and daughter set about exploring, Edward passionately studying the island's horticulture and Rosamund wandering about to discover its mysteries. Then a Chinese ship, with the last heir to the Ming dynasty among its passengers, arrives—and changes everything.
"The prose is ripe, laden with a sense of the forbidden, and with doom." —Publishers Weekly
"A luminous historical novel." —Booklist Online
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
East and West meet on an undiscovered island in the Indian Ocean in this lush, fatalistic second novel (after The Avenue of Eternal Peace) from Jose, an Australian. Off the African coast, a shipwreck strands English horticulturist Edward Popple, his daughter, Rosamund, and a sailor. Unbeknownst to them, the island harbors other refugees: Taizao, a seemingly impotent exiled Chinese prince; Lou Lu, an elderly eunuch who serves as Taizao's guardian; and the crew of their Chinese ship. After some initial misunderstandings, the two groups join forces to try to escape the island. From the start, it's clear that this isn't a standard historical adventure. The prose is ripe, laden with a sense of the forbidden, and with doom. Popple craves his daughter, noting how, while on horseback, "hot rosy pulses from the riding flushed her skin." When Rosamund awakens the prince's sexuality, it's by urinating in front of him. And when the narrative darkens into suffering and tragedy, it's jarring but no surprise, like a thunderstorm at the end of a hot and humid day.
