Iridescence
Author(s): Peter Wells
Remittance men were sent away from Britain to live in a colony on a small and regular sum - a remittance. Usually behind them was some disgrace or scandal, a secret that each man carried, often to the grave. Scandal and secrets are at the heart of IRIDESCENCE, a novel that spans two decades of the Victorian age. It follows the intrigues and sexual shenanigans of the theatre world in a brilliantly amoral London to the small and dusty town of Napier in New Zealand. Can you keep a secret? Samuel Barton, a remittance man, is blown into Napier in 1871, after an undisclosed scandal. He is damaged goods, but he carries with him an earring made up of fabulous jewels. With this earring he will buy his freedom. As we follow the story of the jewel, so Samuel Barton's secret life is revealed, piece by piece. We are taken into the very heart of a brilliant coterie of Londoners, for whom make-believe and secrets are their very soul. But what happens when life on the stage is taken into the streets? The world of make-believe explodes. Can you keep a secret? Samuel Barton could. To his grave.
Product Information
Runner-up for Montana New Zealand Book Awards: Fiction Category 2004. Shortlisted for Tasmania Pacific Rim Region Prizes: Fiction 2005.
'Peter Wells is a writer and film-maker. He studied history at Auckland University and the University of Warwick, England. As a writer, he has won the NZ Book Award for Fiction for his first book of short stories, Dangerous Desires which was published by Viking Penguin in New York and Secker and Warburg in London. The book also won, among other awards, the PEN (NZ) Best First Book in Prose Award in 1992. He has since published another book of short fiction, The Duration of a Kiss, ( New York, Sydney and London) and a novel, Boy Overboard which was shortlisted for the 1998 Commonwealth Prize (Pacific-Asia Region). His memoir Long Loop Home won the 2002 Montana New Zealand Book Award for Biography. Iridescence was the runner up for the Deutz Medal Winner for Fiction at the Montana Book of the Year Awards and a finalist in the Tasmania-Pacific Award. Lucky Bastard, a novel, was published in 2006. In 2009 Peter Wells won the CLL Award to write a book on William Colenso. In 2011 Peter Wells was awarded the Michael King Fellowship which is one of the NZ's largest writing fellowships and supports established writers to work on a major project over two or more years.'
General Fields
- :
- : Random House
- : Vintage
- : 01 September 2003
- : New Zealand
- : books
Special Fields
- : Peter Wells
- : Paperback
- : illustrated edition, reprint
- : English
- : 823.914
- : 463
- : 1 port.
