by KunalBasu (Author)
1855: the most ambitious eugenics experiment begins on a deserted Mediterranean island, pitting a British craniologist, Dr. Samuel Bates against his French rival, Jean-Louis Belavoix. Two infants, a black boy and a white girl, are raised on the island by a dumb nurse (Norah), away from all human contact but monitored twice yearly by Bates, Belavoix and their assistant, Nicholas Quartley to study their development. Bates claims the white child would show signs of natural superiority, while Belavoix claims the two races would be equal, with each side showing the urge to conquer and ultimately destroy, the other. Bates and Belavoix turn into rivals for Norah's attention but she and Quartley are secretly in love, which fuels even more intense competition between the three men. By the time Norah reveals she isn't dumb after all, the experiment is already in jeopardy of collapse. Doubts surface in London over the scientist's real intentions at a time when Darwin's evolution theories begin to emerge. Soon, Captain Perry, responsible for supplying a ferry service to the island, agrees to help Norah and Quartley escape with the children; however, before Perry returns to the island to rescue them, an 'accident' turns their reunion into tragedy.
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 224
Edition: 1st Edition
Publisher: W&N
Published: 12 Jan 2006
ISBN 10: 0297850660
ISBN 13: 9780297850663
Book Overview: Kunal Basu is a superb writer, often compared with Salman Rushdie and Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Very sexy subject - the race between two Victorian scientists and a love story that intervenes with elements of the Lord of the Flies He always receives the most stunning reviews: 'A dazzling feat, evoking the conflicting forces of tyranny and civilisation, patronage and artistic integrity in 16th-century India with a deftness of hand as astonishing as it is brief...refreshingly modern in its minimalism, but also gorgeous with period colour and detail' Guardian 'The Persian Khwaja is rumoured to have charmed the Mughal emperor Akbar by drawing an entire army on a grain of rice . Basu pulls off a similarly dazzling feat, evoking the conflicting forces of tyranny and civilisation, patronage and artistic integrity in 16th-century Indian with a deftness of hand as astonishing as it is brief' Guardian