OUT OF PRINT

Price  £10.95
Format  Hardback
Published  1990
Length  200 pages
ISBN  9781870015318

The Blackbird's Song
Pauline Holdstock

It is June, 1900. When the drought came and times turned harsh in China, the blame was laid on the Christian missionaries, who had previously been protected by the Chinese provincial governors. The Boxer Rebellion was unleashed and its murderous slogan, “Exterminate the Foreigner”, haunts and relentlessly pursues the three protagonists, Emily, William and Martha, in their terrifying and soul-searching journey to safety across the dry plains of Northern China.

Isolated in such a different culture, and already victims of their own private obsessions, the three missionaries are forced to confront the very nature of their faith as they flee their Chinese tormentors. Vulnerable and stripped of their defenses, they are faced with brutal truths about themselves and their relationships with each other. The Blackbird’s Song explores the fine line between faith and illusion, courage and weakness, hope and despair as events unfold in a dramatic and horrifying way.

Pauline Holdstock’s prose is lyrical and unusually powerful. She has created an unforgettable first novel.

About Pauline Holdstock

After graduating from London University in 1969, Pauline Holdstock taught in England, the Bahamas, and Canada where she settled and became a full-time writer.