The Pure Land
Published on 20. November 2008
400 pages
978-1-84767-429-6 (ISBN)
Description
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.
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.
Reviews / Votes
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 * *More details
Edition
Main
Language
English
Place of publication
Edinburgh
United Kingdom
ISBN-13
978-1-84767-429-6 (9781847674296)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Person
Alan Spence is an award winning poet, playwright, novelist and short story writer. His awards include the Glenfiddich Spirit of Scotland Award, the Macallan Short Story Prize and the McVitie Prize for Scottish Writer of the Year. He is Professor in Creative Writing at the University of Aberdeen, where he is also Artistic Director of the annual WORD Festival.
Content
- Title Page
- Dedication
- Table of Contents
- Chapter One: The Gateless Gate
- Chapter Two: The Known World
- Chapter Three: Guraba-San
- Chapter Four: Silk And Tea
- Chapter Five: Alchemy
- Chapter Six: Ronin
- Chapter Seven: Night Journey
- Chapter Eight: Flower Of Kagoshima
- Chapter Nine: Burning Bright
- Chapter Ten: Brig O'Balgownie
- Chapter Eleven: Daimyo
- Chapter Twelve: Meiji
- Chapter Thirteen: Maki
- Chapter Fourteen: Hot Ginger And Dynamite
- Chapter Fifteen: Form Is Emptiness
- Chapter Sixteen: One Fine Day
- Chapter Seventeen: The Pure Land
- Night Boat: A Preview
- Acknowledgements
- Also By Alan Spence
- Copyright
