The Weight of Smoke (In the Land of Whispers, Book One) - Hardcover

George Robert Minkoff

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0929701801 ISBN 13: 9780929701806

Publisher: McPherson, 2006

Synopsis

'[The Weight of Smoke is] an excellent evocation of the beginnings of the Jamestown Colony. And, in a broader sense, it is a story of the Europeans encountering full-face the might of the American wilderness and the peoples who inhabited it.'-- Larry McMurtry.

Four hundred years ago, a band of English adventurers landed on Virginia's shores. Dreaming of riches while pleading Utopian intent, they came fast upon an unimaginable world. Within weeks disaster beset them from every quarter -- factional intrigue, avarice and corruption, violent war with indigenous peoples, dreadful disease, and fear of starvation. Against these fateful harbingers stood one soldier opposed, a commoner steeled in battle and ambitious beyond his station, Captain John Smith. Yet the greatest threat for Smith at every turn would be temptation -- the lure to overstep his authority, or to relinquish his self-possession, or to yield to his desire for Powhattan's favorite daughter, Pocahantas... At Jamestown also there was a former alchemist, Jonas Profit, an old sailor driven by a furious guilt, who decades before had been Sir Francis Drake's right arm when that scourge of the Spanish Armada was Queen Elizabeth's pirate of choice. As Jonas Profit recounts around the Jamestown campfires Drake's bold challenge to the Spanish rule of the Caribbean seas, John Smith hears the unmistakable ring of personal prophesy: how his own acts in this brave new world will be measured not by his immortal glory, but by degrees of desperation. George Robert Minkoff's unprecedented three-volume historical fiction, In the Land of Whispers, is a visionary witnessing of the birth of the British empire. The Weight of Smoke is only the first volume, and follows Drake and Smith through their transformative initiations, suspending them on the precipice of their hopes.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

"A truly unforgettable experience. The style makes me feel language is an utterly new instrument again, vital and pliable. Minkoff has given us back so much of what we have erased in order to survive by forgetting."--Jorie Graham

"A vivid retelling of crucial events, enlivened with aphorisms and, best of all, a new incarnation of a legendary romance." -- William T. Vollmann

"An excellent evocation of the beginnings of the Jamestown Colony. And, in a broader sense, it is a story of the Europeans encountering full-face the might of the American wilderness and the peoples who inhabited it." -- Larry McMurtry

About the Author:

George Robert Minkoff was born in New York City and educated at Clark University. In addition to writing novels, he is an expert in antiquarian books and divides his time between Manhattan and western Massachusetts. His epic trilogy In the Land of Whispers was written over a span of ten years. The Dragons of the Storm was pubished in 2007 and The Leaves of Fate will be published in 2010.

About this edition

• Publisher: McPherson
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0929701801
• ISBN 13: 9780929701806
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 389