On a radiant day in Sydney, four people converge on Circular Quay, site of the iconic Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Each of the four is haunted by memories of the past: Ellie is preoccupied by her experiences as a girl, James by a tragedy for which he feels responsible, Catherine by the loss of her beloved brother in Dublin and Pei Xing by her imprisonment during China's Cultural Revolution. Told over the course of a single Saturday, Five Bells describes vividly four lives which chime and resonate. By night-time, when Sydney is drenched in a rainstorm, each life has been transformed.



They were showing the savages on the rooftop - that was the word at the kerbstone.
Set amid the skyscrapers of 1890s Chicago and the far-flung islands of the South Pacific,
Bright and Distant Shores is both a sweeping epic and a triumph of lyrical storytelling.

Chicago First Equitable has won the race to construct the world's tallest building and its
president, Hale Gray, hits upon a surefire way to make it an enduring landmark: to establish
on the roof an exhibition of real-life 'savages'. He sponsors a South Seas voyage to collect
not only weaponry and artefacts, but also 'several natives related by blood' for the
company's rooftop spectacle. Caught up in this scheme are two orphans: Owen Graves, the
voyage's head trader from Chicago's South Side, and Argus Niu, a mission houseboy in
Melanesia - two young men haunted by their pasts.

With echoes of Melville, Doctorow and Carey, Bright and Distant Shores is at once a
remarkable love story and a breathtaking adventure that chronicles the clash of the tribal
and the civilised at a pivotal moment in history. An extraordinary feat of imagination and
storytelling, it will wholly seduce you.

29,95 $au