The Transformation - Hardcover

Chidgey, Catherine

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0330433229 ISBN 13: 9780330433228

Publisher: Picador, 2005

Synopsis

Tampa, Florida, 1898: a frontier where the old world meets the new. Dominating the town is the new Tampa Bay Hotel, with its tangle of Moorish minarets, cupolas and arches; its Byzantine domes and thirteen crescent moons; its electric lighting designed by Edison. This fairy-tale castle anchored by the water's edge is a winter magnet for bankers and industrialists, stockbrokers and shipping merchants, attorneys and architects and celebrities who come from as far away as Europe. But the hotel has one permanent resident, the enigmatic and exotic Monsieur Goulet III, amateur phrenologist and wig-maker to the plain and the glamorous alike - to any resident of Tampa whose desire for the transformations he creates is matched by pockets deep enough to meet his price. As the winter of 1898 nears its end, Goulet becomes entranced by the spectacular silver-blonde hair of a beautiful young widow, Marion Unger, and determines that the transformation it inspires him to create will be his masterpiece. But the raw material he needs for its completion is hard to come by, and so he drives his resourceful night-scavenger - a teenage cigar-maker who has fled the war in Cuba - to increasingly extreme efforts. As the fates of the widow, the wigmaker and the scavenger become ever more tightly entwined, Goulet's true nature, hitherto cleverly and obsessively disguised, begins to show itself, until it becomes clear that he will allow nothing to impede the progress of his ultimate transformation.

About this title

From the Inside Flap

From the writer described as "the most fabulous New Zealand writer alive" (Listener NZ) comes a masterful novel, with the power of Patrick Suskind's Perfume.

Tampa Bay, Florida, in 1898 is a frontier, where the progress of the modern world has not yet won the battle against the voodoo magic of the swamps, but where miracles of transformation are still possible. Dominating the town is the new Tampa Bay Hotel, with its tangle of Moorish minarets, Byzantine domes and new electric lighting, designed by Edison himself — a fairytale castle that is a winter magnet for the best sort of people — bankers and industrialists, stock brokers and shipping merchants, attorneys and architects and celebrities — who come from the northern cities and Europe.

But the hotel does have one permanent year-round resident: Monsieur Lucien Goulet III is the exotic wigmaker to the rich and glamorous, and indeed to any resident of Tampa whose desire for the transformations he creates is keen enough to meet his price. Goulet himself is entranced by the head of hair belonging to the young widow Marion Unger. And as the raw material he needs to complete his great masterpiece becomes harder to come by, so he drives his gifted night-scavenger — a teenage Cuban cigar-maker — to increasingly extreme efforts.

As this unlikely cast of characters becomes entwined, the secret depths of Goulet's nature rise to the surface, leading to an electrifying conclusion.

About the Author

Catherine Chidgey was born in New Zealand in 1970. She is the author of two previous novels, In a Fishbone Church, for which she received the Betty Trask Award, and Golden Deeds. In 2003 she was judged the best New Zealand novelist under forty in a Listener critics' poll. Catherine Chidgey now lives in Dunedin.

Edition details

• Publisher: Picador
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0330433229
• ISBN 13: 9780330433228
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 260