"Mr. Lowe lives the simple and happy life of a contented shopkeeper. A Chinese immigrant to Jamaica in the 1890s, Lowe revels in the verdant surroundings of his adoptive land. But his mysterious past begins to confront Lowe in everything he does, and so his story emerges - the tale of his exile from China, his shipboard adventures, an unwanted pregnancy, and the arrangement of hidden identity that was made to avoid scandal. Lowe marries the beautiful widow Miss Sylvie as part of the arrangement, and their relationship is complex, vivid, and full of secrets. When his shop burns to the ground Lowe is forced to reckon with his past through the destruction of his disguises and the creation of a new dream: the building of a pagoda where culture and the past can be fully embraced." -- back cover.
The Pagoda in the Gardenis a novel about how things changed and how they stayed the same over the course of the twentieth century. Set in England during three distinct time periods between 1901 and 1975, the novel explores the lives of three sets of characters, the major ones being expatriate Americans. The reader meets a master novelist, his acolyte (herself later a master), and her lover; a divorced novelist on the verge of middle-age and the Canadian of indeterminate age who flirts with her; a graduate student at King's College and her English lover. Since the various characters occupy roles that parallel and overlap each other, history (a history that ranges from the death of Queen Victoria to the end of the Vietnam War) comes to seem continuous and cyclical as well as catastrophic and disrupted. Paying acknowledged tribute to the work of Henry James (the title alludes to a passage inThe Golden Bowl),The Pagoda in the Gardenis above all a novel about human emotions and the sometimes fraught, sometimes amusing complications they give rise to.
Set in the late 1800s, here is the story of Ning, a Chinese American girl who struggles to find her place in the world when she is forced to leave her home in Shanghai to go live in America with a father she barely knows. This middle-grade historical novel is based on the family history of award-winning author Michaela MacColl. Twelve-year-old Ning doesn't know where she belongs. The daughter of a Chinese woman and American man, Ning doesn't fit in in 1870s Shanghai, where her American features and unbound feet make her stand out. When she receives news that her father will be visiting from America, Ning excitedly hopes that her parents will become a family. Instead, she learns that her father is taking her back with him to America. Ning wonders if being American will finally give her a sense of belonging, but when she arrives, she discovers that living in America isn't perfect either. In this coming-of-age novel based on the life of author Michaela MacColl's great-great-great-grandmother, a young girl learns to accept both sides of her heritage and find a new identity for herself.
This is the first of two semi-autobiographical novels written originally in English which depict Chang's childhood years in Tianjin and Shanghai. The book introduces a young girl growing up amid many family entanglements with her divorced mother and spinster aunt during the 1930s.
Weaving together the uneasy meeting of two cultures, The Pagoda Tree is a captivating story of love, loss and fate. Tanjore, 1765. Maya plays among the towering granite temples of this ancient city in the heart of southern India. Like her mother before her, she is destined to become a devadasi, a dancer for the temple. She is instructed in dance, the mystical arts and lovemaking. It is expected she will be chosen as a courtesan for the prince himself. But as Maya comes of age, India is on the cusp of change and British dominance has risen to new heights. The prince is losing his power and the city is sliding into war. Maya is forced to flee her ancestral home, and heads to the bustling port city of Madras, where East and West collide. Maya captivates all who watch her dance. Thomas Pearce, an ambitious young Englishman who has travelled to India to make his fortune, is entranced from the moment he first sees her. But their love is forbidden, and comes at enormous cost. 'Claire Scobie's seductive prose and immaculate layering of period detail capture India at her most exotic.' Susan Kurosawa 'Women's stories are rarely told in history, nor particularly honoured. The Pagoda Tree offers a powerful, sensual perspective on a time of great transformation in India.' Sarah Macdonald, author of Holy Cow 'A rich and enthralling story handled with great skill by someone with a profound understanding of her material.' David Roach, screenwriter and film director 'A richly textured tale full of the sights, sounds and smells of India, with all its complex beauty and troubled history … ' Sydney Morning Herald 'A novel to be savoured … Its layering, the unravelling of the story, the subtext of the fortunes made and lost on cotton and silk, the evocative descriptions of saris themselves are all part of [its] tapestry.' The Age '[The Pagoda Tree] offers new ways of seeing the past.' Canberra Times 'Scobie's prose is eloquent … a fascinating, unique plot representing an interesting era in [India's] history.' The Mercury 'A story told with great panache.' Country Style 'Claire Scobie travels a vast and exotic terrain in her first novel.' Weekly Review 'This first novel by Claire Scobie would make a spectacular film.' Goodreading Magazine 'A nuanced and sophisticated exploration of the socio-historical realities that are inevitable when cultures collide.' The Hoopla
A gorgeously illustrated survey of chinoiserie from the 18th century to today Chinoiserie is a term for Western art and design inspired by a largely invented vision of China. Marco Polo's sensational account of his visit to the exotic East in the 13th century sparked a fascination with China that reached a fever pitch in the 18th century and continues to this day. Art historian and artist Aldous Bertram has long been captivated by chinoiserie. Dragons & Pagodas is organized by theme, including porcelain, color and pattern, flora, fauna, and architecture. Each chapter is bursting with images ranging from grand European summer palaces and whimsical pagoda follies to charming details of screens, porcelain figurines, and ornate plasterwork. Complete with Bertram's own chinoiserie-inspired watercolors and collages, Dragons & Pagodas is an irresistible confection and an example of chinoiserie in its own right. -Cloth bound with edge stain
Carl Holton was enchanted by the exquisitely carved and jeweled teak miniature he found in a Burma bazaar. But he heeded the wizened merchant's ominous words and was wary of becoming mesmerized by its beauty. For Carl knew that as well as beauty, the pagoda possessed a horrifying evil.
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