Présentation de l'éditeur
Beautiful, headstrong and unconventional, Catherine Cabot is twenty years old when she arrives in China. Against an uneasy political background a bittersweet, triangular love affair develops between Catherine and Edmund and George Airton. And all the while, she is trying to uncover the truth of her past, unaware of the danger this might pose to her.
Who is Henry Manners, the mysterious man who once wrote to her mother, and who she knows now lives in China?
Running in parallel is the extraordinary story of Yu-Fu-kuei, a Chinese revolutionary working as a Communist spy. She and Catherine met when they were at Oxford immediately after the Great War, and the friendship is deep and permanent. As the Japanese mass themselves on the borders, waiting for an excuse to invade, Catherine, ignorant of a history steeped in hatred, unwittingly becomes the perfect tool to settle the scores of two men who will stop at nothing to wreak their revenge. And Yu-Fu-kuei discovers that love might be the strongest weapon that any warrior has.
Revue de presse
Praise for THE PALACE OF HEAVENLY PLEASURE:
'This book is poetic and romantic in parts, harrowing and tragic in others. It's not exactly light, holiday reading, as it requires a hefty amount of concentration, but persevere when the going gets tough and you'll be richly rewarded.' **** (
Heat)A rattling good read. Full of love and loss and guts and gore and derring-do, this is as good as an adventure story gets . . . Williams is a master (The Times)Storytelling of the epic kind - this 700 page tale about sinners and lovers in 1900s China will have you gripped (Heat)Intrigue, adventure and romance await, but it is Williams's vivid knowledge of China and the complexities which lie within the sleeping dragon that make this a worthy read (Straits Times)An epic historical and romantic story as well as an impressive first novel. (Sunday Mirror)James Clavell left a huge gap in Far Eastern epic storytelling . . . it looks as if he finally has a successor with the appearance of Williams's novel on the Boxer rebellion of 1900. . . Williams intermingles romance, peril and murder in the old China and spikes it with emotion and a spirit of adventure. Heavenly pleasure indeed (Publishing News)
Biographie de l'auteur
Adam Williams, whose family has lived in China since the late nineteenth century, was born and raised in Hong Kong. For the last eighteen years he has been representative in Beijing of a Far East trading conglomerate. In 1999 he received an OBE for services to Sino-British trade. Adam is married to Fumei and has two children.
