The Pure Land (Paperback) - Softcover

Spence, Alan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1841959596 ISBN 13: 9781841959597

Publisher: Canongate Books, 2007

Synopsis

The year is 1858. Thomas Glover is a gutsy eighteen-year-old who grasps the chance of escape to foreign lands and takes a posting as a trader in Japan. Within ten years he amasses a great fortune, learns the ways of the samurai, and, on the other side of the law, brings about the overthrow of the Shogun. Yet beneath Glover's astonishing success lies a man cut to the heart. His love affair with a courtesan - a woman who, unknown to him, would bear him the son for which he had always longed - would form a tragedy so dramatic as to be immortalised in the stories behind Madame Butterfly and Miss Saigon.

The Pure Land relives in fiction the arc of Glover's true-life rise and fall, and forges a hundred-year saga that culminates in the annihilation of Nagasaki in 1945.

About this title

Review:

"His imagination is given full rein but this never clouds his instinctive understanding of the contradictions of the human condition. It is a glorious finale to a very fine novel." (Sunday Herald)

"Edinburgh writer Spence, whose accolades include Scottish Writer of the Year in 1995, tells how in 1858 Glover left Aberdeenshire for Nagasaki, where he went on to build a business empire and become a key figure in Japan's industrialisation." (Financial Times)

Synopsis:

This is a modern epic, a heart-breaking love story and an unforgettable journey of the spirit. It is a powerful historical novel based on the remarkable life of the man who inspired Madame Butterfly. It is a mass market paperback of the acclaimed novel for summer reading 2007. It is backed by a high profile advertising campaign including "Sunday Times", "Daily Mail", "Metro" and "Daily Telegraph." The year is 1858. Thomas Glover is a gutsy eighteen-year-old who grasps the chance of escape to foreign lands and takes a posting as a trader in Japan. Within ten years, he amasses a great fortune, learns the ways of the samurai, and, on the other side of the law, brings about the overthrow of the Shogun. Yet beneath Glover's astonishing success lies a man cut to the heart. His love affair with a courtesan - a woman who, unknown to him, would bear him the son for which he had always longed - would form a tragedy so dramatic as to be immortalised in the stories behind Madame Butterfly and Miss Saigon. "The Pure Land" relives in fiction the arc of Glover's true-life rise and fall, and forges a hundred-year saga that culminates in the annihilation of Nagasaki in 1945.

About this edition

• Publisher: Canongate Books
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 1841959596
• ISBN 13: 9781841959597
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 394