The Fever Tree
Jennifer McVeigh
In London she was caged by society.
In South Africa, she is dangerously free.
Frances Irvine, left destitute in the wake of her father’s sudden death, has been forced to abandon her life of wealth and privilege in London and emigrate to the Southern Cape of Africa. 1880 South Africa is a country torn apart by greed. In this remote and inhospitable land she becomes entangled with two very different men—one driven by ambition, the other by his ideals. Only when the rumor of a smallpox epidemic takes her into the dark heart of the diamond mines does she see her path to happiness. But this is a ruthless world of avarice and exploitation, where the spoils of the rich come at a terrible human cost and powerful men will go to any lengths to keep the mines in operation. Removed from civilization and disillusioned by her isolation, Frances must choose between passion and integrity, a decision that has devastating consequences.
The Fever Tree is a compelling portrait of colonial South Africa, its raw beauty and deprivation alive in equal measure. But above all it is a love story about how—just when we need it most—fear can blind us to the truth.
Hey everyone!! Today is just a quickie post - a spotlight with a giveaway for The Fever Tree! What do you think, is this going on your TBR? The giveaway is for a print copy - sorry, US only!
Now
available in Trade Paperback, THE FEVER
TREE by Jennifer McVeigh (Berkley Trade Paperback Reprint; 978-0-425-26491-1;
February 4, 2014; $16)! When it was first released in hardcover last
year, Oprah.com
raved, “Debut author Jennifer McVeigh has created a fully realized sensory tour
of 19th-century South Africa: You feel the grit of each dust storm, taste the
mealie Frances chokes down, hear the cicadas scraping through the heat-parched
air along with Frances' plaintive piano playing.” McVeigh’s charmed story
of loss and love has also been featured in Good
Housekeeping, Women’s World, USA Today, Washington
Post, The
Guardian, Daily
Mail, and more.
With
a perceptive and penetrating narrative, McVeigh unspools the story of Frances
Irvine, a young Englishwoman forced by hopeless circumstance to immigrate to
the Cape in pursuit of a reluctant marriage. There she discovers a strange new
world where greed and colonial exploitation are bringing vast wealth to some
and dire misery to countless others. As she struggles to find her place in this
inhospitable land, Frances tethers her fate to two very different men: one
serious and idealistic, the other charming and ambitious. When a smallpox
epidemic threatens the financial dynasty of the most powerful Englishman in
South Africa, Frances will be cast into a vortex of dangerous consequences—and
find an unexpected, purposeful path.
Jennifer McVeigh, who has herself traveled to remote areas of Southern and East Africa, also drew on firsthand accounts of life in colonial South Africa, as well as nineteenth century guidebooks and women’s magazines, in order to infuse Frances Irvine’s experiences with arresting verisimilitude. You can find her on the web at www.jennifermcveigh.com.
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