The Touch - by Colleen McCullough (Paperback)
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<p/><br></br><p><b> About the Book </b></p></br></br>Returning to the magnificent setting of Australia's open frontiers, the #1 "New York Times" bestselling author weaves her most powerful novel since "The Thorn Birds"--a new saga of an Australian family that spans from the 1870s to the turn of the 20th century.<p/><br></br><p><b> Book Synopsis </b></p></br></br><b>Not since <i>The Thorn Birds</i> has Colleen McCullough written a novel of such broad appeal about a family and the Australian experience as <i>The Touch.</i></b> <p/>At its center is Alexander Kinross, remembered as a young man in his native Scotland only as a shiftless boilermaker's apprentice and a godless rebel. But when, years later, he writes from Australia to summon his bride, his Scottish relatives quickly realize that he has made a fortune in the goldfields and is now a man to be reckoned with. <p/>Arriving in Sydney after a difficult voyage, the sixteen-year-old Elizabeth Drummond meets her husband-to-be and discovers to her dismay that he frightens and repels her. Offered no choice, she marries him and is whisked at once across a wild, uninhabited countryside to Alexander's own town, named Kinross after himself. In the crags above it lies the world's richest gold mine. <p/>Isolated in Alexander's great house, with no company save Chinese servants, Elizabeth finds that the intimacies of marriage do not prompt her husband to enlighten her about his past life--or even his present one. She has no idea that he still has a mistress, the sensual, tough, outspoken Ruby Costevan, whom Alexander has established in his town, nor that he has also made Ruby a partner in his company, rapidly expanding its interests far beyond gold. Ruby has a son, Lee, whose father is the head of the beleaguered Chinese community; the boy becomes dear to Alexander, who fosters his education as a gentleman. <p/>Captured by the very different natures of Elizabeth and Ruby, Alexander resolves to have both of them. Why should he not? He has the fabled "Midas Touch"--a combination of curiosity, boldness, and intelligence that he applies to every situation, and which fails him only when it comes to these two women. <p/>Although Ruby loves Alexander desperately, Elizabeth does not. Elizabeth bears him two daughters: the brilliant Nell, so much like her father; and the beautiful, haunting Anna, who is to present her father with a torment out of which for once he cannot buy his way. Thwarted in his desire for a son, Alexander turns to Ruby's boy as a possible heir to his empire, unaware that by keeping Lee with him, he is courting disaster. <p/>The stories of the lives of Alexander, Elizabeth, and Ruby are intermingled with those of a rich cast of characters, and, after many twists and turns, come to a stunning and shocking climax. Like <i>The Thorn Birds</i>, Colleen McCullough's new novel is at once a love story and a family saga, replete with tragedy, pathos, history, and passion. As few other novelists can, she conveys a sense of place: the desperate need of her characters, men and women, rootless in a strange land, to create new beginnings.<p/><br></br><p><b> Review Quotes </b></p></br></br><br>"Booklist" A fantastic and exceptional saga.<br>
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