A Dead Language

647 pages. page edge lightly tannedBenjamin Franklin Pinkerton - the faithless young naval lieutenant who abando ns Madam Butterfly - was glimpsed fleetingly in Peter Rushforth's previous novel , Pinkerton's Sister. Now Ben steps out of the shadows and into the centre of th e stage, a young man haunted by the desolation of his boyhood years, unable to s how or respond to love. He's about to sail for Japan. But his imminent departure conjures up the life he and his sister have led, and the monstrous act for whic h he is most the rejection and destruction of a pure and loving heart. What happ ened to him then will mark his whole life. He is his own man, but he is also his sister's brother. Once again, in his mastery of language, his extraordinary ima gination, his superb sense of time and place, Peter Rushforth has given the worl d a second masterpiece, ranking alongside, or surpassing, his earlier triumph.