The Leaves of Fate (In the Land of Whispers #3) - Hardcover

George Robert Minkoff

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0929701828 ISBN 13: 9780929701820

Publisher: McPherson, 2011

Synopsis

The Leaves of Fate is the third and final volume of an epic fictional chronicle, "In the Land of Whispers." The three books present the extraordinary histories of the hero of Jamestown, Captain John Smith, and the great Elizabethan explorer before him, Sir Francis Drake. Smith's journals record the events of his own life, and reprise the tales told him around the campfires at Jamestown by Jonas Profit, an alchemist who accompanied Drake on his voyages. In this final volume Smith is forced to return to England, never to set foot again in Jamestown. Profit has died, but not before passing along the final scenes of Drake's downfall, as well as that of Profit's teacher, the alchemist John Dee. Despite a subsequent expedition to map the New England coast, Smith is cast aside by the Virginia Company, and reduced to the role of a keening witness, all the while the colonies move inexorably toward becoming a slave economy built around the cultivation of tobacco. In London, Smith's reunion with Pocahontas in England is brief and bittersweet, but despite continuing hardship and neglect, Smith becomes the best-selling author of his time. The first volume is concerned with initiation. The second volume with trial and expulsion. This final volume is the book of exile.

About this title

About the Author

George Robert Minkoff was raised on Long Island. He graduated from Clark University in 1965. For four decades he has been a noted antiquarian and rare book dealer living in the Berkshires of Massachusetts and New York City. Mr. Minkoff began writing plays in the late 1960s, but a decade later the publisher of Putnam, William Targ, urged him instead to write novels. Inspired by one of his teen-aged sons, the trilogy "In the Land of Whispers" began as a one-act play to dramatize the absurdity between the reach of the first English settlers and their grasp, but as Minkoff dealt with the historical materials he realized there was a far greater story to be told -- a story of intertwined illusions: alchemy (the reigning science), tobacco (presumed a miracle drug), and the Elizabethan mind.

Review

"No author that I know of has brought home [Jamestown's] trials and tribulations more vividly than Minkoff.... Yes, this volume, along with the first two of the series, is a novel, but it is based on the 'real world' in the Jamestown Colony in the early 1600s. It is obvious that Mr. Minkoff has done an enormous amount of research on the periods he covers. Any reader who enjoys having history come alive will benefit from acquiring and reading all three volumes of 'In the Land of Whispers.'" --Robert Shultis, Virginia Gazette

"The language the author employs to tell his tale mimics the speech of the 17th century. At times, it was difficult to follow the story without rereading sentences, but because I have read the first two installments of this trilogy, I knew what to expect. Mr. Minkoff is a very talented writer whose use of English is similar to that of Shakespeare's sonnets -- you must read and concentrate on the significance of his choice of words to fully comprehend the novel while you follow the plot of the story. If you are looking for a novel that is fast-paced and full of action, this book is not for you. If you value the tone and construction of the English language in sentences that are poetic in nature and add refinement to the ordinary novel, you will enjoy and savor this book. Highly recommended for readers with sophisticated literary tastes." --Jeff Westerhoff, Historical Novels Review

"One of the best known and least understood stories in America s history is the fascinating, desperate saga of the founding of the Virginia colony, with the relationship between John Smith and Pocahontas at its heart. The Leaves of Fate, like its two predecessors, stands head and shoulders above all previous attempts to tell this tale of nations and confusion, of hopes and betrayals, of noble and courageous actors both red and white on a stage worthy of Shakespeare. "Minkoff s epic trilogy succeeds in presenting a far from simple story. He understands the complex politics, and the ambiguous motives, not only of the English planters but also of the Native peoples of the period. And no one has granted the reader a better entrance into the mind, heart, and spirit of the passionate, practical, wondrously wordy, unyielding and iconoclastic John Smith." --Joseph Bruchac

"George Minkoff is one of the bravest men alive. He has gambled that a three-part epic novel about 17th century Colonial America -- written in a language that mimics the speech of the time -- can hold the interest of 21st century readers and bring satisfactions and delights as a work of contemporary fiction. Remarkably enough, he has won his bet." --Paul Auster

EDITOR'S CHOICE: "There is a curse upon the adventurers and mendicants, second sons of the aristocracy and would-be sovereigns of their own destiny who sailed for the New World. The altruistic English settler Captain John Smith -- a name forever coupled with that of Pocahontas -- is the narrator of The Leaves of Fate, the last volume of an ambitious, lavishly researched trilogy, In the Land of Whispers. It begins in 1610 in the ill-fated settlement of Jamestown -- starvation has claimed the lives of most settlers, a madman spits his tale of cannibalism to Smith, and a London emissary (the ostentatious governor De La Warr who lent Delaware its name) is about to take charge of the affairs of 'state.' Chief Powhatan's daughter, Pocahontas, will be held for ransom -- in exchange for eight English captives -- but her entrapment is mirrored in the circumstances of many of the motley, vividly drawn characters that strut and crawl across the stage -- from London to the virgin forests of the New World. The English couincils and companies backing the settlements care little for their struggling colonists and too much for their own profit. Back in London, Smith writes: 'I am exhausted in my enterprise. I sank in the bowels of a rotting London, its intestines strangled in twisted mud.'
"The crux of this enterprise, and its self-fulfilling curse, is made explicit many times over, but synopsized by none other than Sir Thomas Dale, deputy governor of Jamestown, after a murderous, vengeful attack on the Nansemond tribe "...to spread our dominion. Our borders are to overflow. Drake brought the world to our plate and our tongue is greased, its avarice upon our nation's lips.' The Leaves of Fate is an epic tale and Minkoff has chosen to mimic the language of the time. If its cadence seems overwrought to the modern ear, its descriptive powers are worth the struggle. This is an admirable and captivating account of the rough and costly early years of our history, scrupulously retold by a master storyteller." --Betsy Sussler, BOMB

About this edition

• Publisher: McPherson
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0929701828
• ISBN 13: 9780929701820
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 432