The Red Thread

Description

Nicholas Jose's new novel is a love story that oscillates between contemporary Shanghai and ancient China. The hardback edition was published simultaneously by Faber in the UK and Chronicle Books in the US, and the film rights have already been optioned by an Australian production company. Shen, one of the main characters, acquires an extremely rare edition of Six Chapters of a Floating Life, a book written nearly two centuries before. The final two chapters of the book have never been found, however, and the classic is even more prized for its incompleteness. With his girlfriend, Ruth, an Australian artist, they become ever more enmeshed in Six Chapters as they discover that the book's characters and events almost exactly coincide with themselves and their lives. The future of their relationship and the prognosis for Ruth's failing health seem to be foretold in the missing chapters. In this compelling and unusual novel, author Nicholas Jose weaves sections of the original text of Six Chapters - in red type - through the contemporary story. Literally and figuratively, the threads of the two tales intertwine to resolve the fate of the two lovers.