Salamander - Thomas Wharton

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Résumé :
Spellbinding, original, Salamander careens through a world of ideas and stories in which the transforming power of books, the thirst for knowledge, and the pursuit of immortality become erotic. It is also a universal story of love and obsession. Set in the eighteenth century, the narrative revolves around a world-spanning quest for the infinite book. Along the way the novel gathers stories that range from a Chinese tale of jealousy and lost love to the remarkable history of Alexandria's other great library and to epoch-making moments on the battlefields of colonial America. At the centre of the novel's unforgettable cast of characters is the London printer Nicholas Flood, a dedicated craftsman who is unprepared for all that awaits him when he accepts an unusual commission. Intricate, humane, infused with humour and pathos, Salamander is an exhilarating, elegantly crafted novel.

Biographie:
Thomas Wharton was born in northern Alberta. His acclaimed first novel, Icefields (1995), won the regional Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best First Book (Caribbean and Canada), the Writers Guild of Alberta Best First Book Award, and the Banff Mountain Book Festival Grand Prize. Salamander (2001) was a national bestseller and a finalist for the Governor General's Award. His work has been anthologized in Canada and the US.

Wharton lives in Edmonton with his wife, Sharon, and their three children. He is at work on his next novel.