Stevenson Under the Palm Trees [Paperback]

"Ingenious... This is a potent, poetic ghost story." Daily Mail; "Almost perfectly executed, it's an exquisite amuse bouche whose taste lingers on." The Times; "Manguel mixes motifs from Stevenson's life and work into a delightful literary souffle." Independent; "Richly told in faultless prose." Independent on Sunday; "Manguel is both the wizard releasing coloured doves from a black top hat and the dedicated scholar soberly at desk." Spectator"

"Stevenson Under the Palm Trees is richly told in faultless prose." --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

"Manguel merges fantasy and reality to create a deceptively simple tale that’s both evocative and subtly disturbing." --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

In the lush, uninhibited atmosphere of Samoa, Robert Louis Stevenson is languishing with the disease that will soon kill him; when a chance encounter with the mysterious Scottish missionary, Mr Baker, turns his thoughts back to his conservative, post-Reformation Edinburgh home. As Stevenson's meetings with the tantalizingly nebulous missionary become increasingly strange, a series of crimes against the native population sours the atmosphere. With its playful nod to Stevenson's life and work Manguel has woven an intoxicating tale in which fantasy infiltrates reality.

Alberto Manguel is a writer of Argentine descent. He was raised in Israel where his father was the Argentine ambassador, and in 1984 he became a Canadian citizen. He is a prize-winning translator and has edited ten anthologies. He has published one novel, News from a Foreign Country Came and his non-fiction includes the massively successful, A History of Reading.