The Colour - Hardcover

Tremain, Rose

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0374126054 ISBN 13: 9780374126056

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003

Synopsis

A sweeping historical novel about love, ruin, and redemption in nineteenth-century New Zealand

Rose Tremain’s new novel is a saga of love and greed set during the mid-nineteenth-century gold rush in New Zealand. Newlyweds Joseph and Harriet Blackstone emigrate from England, along with Joseph’s mother, Lilian, in search of new beginnings and prosperity. But the harsh land near Christchurch where they settle threatens to destroy them almost before they begin. When Joseph finds gold in the creek, he hides the discovery from both his wife and mother and becomes obsessed with the riches awaiting him deep in the earth. Abandoning his farm and family, he sets off alone for the new goldfields over the Southern Alps, a moral wilderness where many others, under the seductive dreams of “the colour,” rush to their destinies.

Harriet decides to pursue her own journey toward an uncertain future. But nothing has prepared her for what happens to her when she arrives at the gold diggings. Amid squalor and confusion, burning heat and icy flood, Harriet comes face-to-face with the true cost of desire.

Beautifully written, hauntingly evocative, and by turns both moving and terrifying, The Colour is the story of a quest for the impossible, an attempt to mine the complexities of love and in the process discover what it is that makes men and women happy.

About this title

From the Inside Flap

A sweeping saga of love and greed set during the mid-nineteenth century gold rush in New Zealand.

Joseph and Harriet Blackstone, along with Joseph?s mother Lilian, emigrate from England in search of new beginnings and prosperity in New Zealand. But the harsh land near Christchurch where they settle threatens to destroy them almost before they begin. When Joseph finds gold in the creek, he guiltily hides the discovery from his wife and mother, and is seized by a rapturous obsession with the voluptuous riches awaiting him deep in the earth. Abandoning his farm and family, he sets off alone for the new gold fields over the Southern Alps, a moral wilderness where many others, under the seductive dreams of the ?colour,? are violently rushing to their destinies.

Harriet bravely decides to pursue her own journey towards an uncertain future. But nothing has prepared her for what happens when she too arrives at the gold diggings. Amid squalor and confusion, burning heat and icy flood, Harriet Blackstone comes face to face with the true cost of desire.

Hauntingly evocative and, by turns, both moving and terrifying, The Colour is the story of a quest for the impossible, an attempt to mine the complexities of love and in the process discover what it is that makes men and women happy.

About the Author

Rose Tremain is the author of nine novels, including Music & Silence, and her work has been translated into fourteen languages. She lives in Norfolk, England, with the biographer Richard Holmes.

Edition details

• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0374126054
• ISBN 13: 9780374126056
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 352