STEVENSON UNDER THE PALM TREES: The Adventures of a Man of Action

Author: ALBERTOMANGUEL
Publisher: Not available
Publish Date: 2002-10-11
Features: Casting Robert Louis Stevenson as his protagonist, Alberto Manguel, author of the international bestseller A History of Reading, spins an intoxicating murder mystery in the South Pacific that echoes Joseph Conrad, A. S. Byatt, and the psychological underpinnings of Stevenson's own work. Robert Louis Stevenson has become accustomed to the intense colors and severe humidity of Samoa, as well as the uninhibited sensuality of its people. Yet his thoughts turn nostalgically back to his native Edinburgh after a chance encounter with the newly arrived Scottish missionary, Mr. Baker, whose religious invectives challenge Stevenson's loosening moral code. And when a young Samoan woman is raped and brutally murdered—someone for whom Stevenson privately pined—the once idyllic island erupts into a barely controlled insurgency. With a creeping sense of both dread and suspense, as well as a playful nod to Stevenson's own persona and imagination, Alberto Manguel has woven together a compelling tale in the sultry South Pacific.