FICTION · HISTORY
Julia Hamilton
Also known as: Julia Watson
HERE ON TIAMAT, WHERE THERE IS MORE WATER THAN LAND, THE SHARP EDGE between ocean and sky is blurred; the two merge into one.
— from The Snow Queen, 1980
Most acclaimed
The Tudor rose
One woman holds the key to England's most glorious empire in this intimate retelling of the launch of the Tudor dynasty -- A magnificent portrait of Elizabeth of York, set against the dramatic background of fifteenth century England. Elizabeth, the only living descendant of Edward IV, has the most valuable possession in all of Englanda legitim... more »ate claim to the crown. Two princes battle to win Britain's most rightful heiress for a bride and her kingdom for his own. On one side is her uncle Richard, the last Plantagenet King, whom she fears is the murderer of her two brothers, the would-be kings. On the other side is Henry Tudor, the exiled knight. Can he save her from a horrifying marriage to a cut-throat soldier? Thrust into the intrigue and drama of the War of the Roses, Elizabeth has a country within her graspif she can find the strength to unite a kingdom torn apart by a thirst for power. A richly drawn tale of the woman who launched one of the most dramatic dynasties England has ever seen, The Tudor Rose is a vibrant, imaginative look at the power of a queen.
The Snow Queen
1980
It's November 2004. Barrett Meeks, having lost love yet again, is walking through Central Park when he is inspired to look up at the sky; there he sees a pale, translucent light that seems to regard him in a distinctly godlike way. Barrett doesn't believe in visions-or in God-but he can't deny what he's seen. At the same time, in the not-quite-gentrified Bushwick neighbourhood of Brooklyn, Tyler, Barrett's older brother, a struggling musician, is trying-and failing-to write a song for Beth, his wife-to-be, who is seriously illustrations Tyler is determined to write a wedding song that will be not merely a sentimental ballad, but an enduring expression of love. Barrett, haunted by the light, turns unexpectedly to religion. Tyler grows increasingly convinced that only drugs can release his creative powers. Beth tries to face mortality with as much courage as she can summon. Cunningham follows the Meeks brothers as each turns down a different path in his search for transcendence. In subtle, lucid prose, he demonstrates a profound empathy for his conflicted characters and a singular understanding of what lies at the depth of the human soul.
Katherine
An American woman comes to China to teach English just as that country opens its doors, six years after the deal of Chairman Mao. Her clothes, her hair, her charm - the stories she tells of an American childhood, the lessons in casual conversation and pop music - awaken in the men and women she tutors a yearning for the tantalizing West and an unknowable eroticism. She is a witting and unwitting seductress who cannot conceive that when she enters into a love triangle with two of her students - one male, one female - its consequences will be insidious and inexorably tragic. In Katherine, Min writes of the clash of centuries-old mystical traditions and modern American ways, of love and betrayal, and of both the balm and destruction obsession offers. Anchee Min's fiction debut confirms her arrival as a writer of singular importance.