Easter Island

Description

It is 1912. Elsa Pendleton, a young Englishwoman, is forced by circumstance into a marriage of convenience. Her one consolation is that she can now fulfil a great dream: to visit Easter Island and study its mysterious history. But as Elsa becomes bewitched by the island and engrossed in her work, she doesn't realise that her beloved sister Alice is also caught up in desires of her own. Nor, in their isolation, do the two sisters realise that Britain and Germany have declared war, and that the catastrophic effects will be felt even in their quiet corner of the South Pacific. Sixty years later American botanist Greer Faraday, recently widowed, arrives on the island. Troubled by unhappy secrets, Greer wraps herself up in her work, rejecting the friendly approaches of her colleagues. But as she explores the island, her story becomes irresistibly entwined with Elsa's, and she is forced to confront some unwelcome truths...

Jennifer Vanderbes is a graduate of Yale and the University of Iowa, where she also taught. Her short story 'The Hatbox' was published to critical acclaim in Best New American Voices 2000. She is 28, lives in New York, and teaches at Colgate University.

'A stunning story, beautifully told' INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY 'An ambitious first novel of survival, betrayal and destructive obsessions ... impressive' OBSERVER 'An ambitious undertaking, triumphantly achieved ... it makes scholarship seem sexier than sex' SUNDAY TELEGRAPH 'Beautifully wrought ... streets ahead of BIRDSONG' TIME OUT 'Part travel adventure, part absorbing scientific discovery, part love story' GUARDIAN