Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Pg. 69: Dominic Smith's "Bright and Distant Shores"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: Bright and Distant Shores by Dominic Smith.

About the book, from the publisher:
They were showing the savages on the rooftop—that was the word at the curbstone.

Dominic Smith’s third novel—Bright and Distant Shores—is set amid the skyscrapers of 1890s Chicago and the far-flung islands of the South Pacific.

Chicago First Equitable has won the race to construct the world’s tallest building and its president, Hale Gray, hits upon a surefire way to make it an enduring landmark: to establish on the roof an exhibition of real-life “savages.” He sponsors a South Seas voyage to collect not only weaponry and artefacts, but also “several natives related by blood” for the company’s rooftop spectacle. Caught up in this scheme are two orphans—Owen Graves, an itinerant trader from Chicago’s South Side, and Argus Niu, a mission houseboy in the New Hebrides. At the cusp of the twentieth century, the expedition forces a collision course between the tribal and the civilized, and between two young men plagued by their haunting pasts.
Learn more about Bright and Distant Shores at Dominic Smith's website.

Smith's previous novels are The Mercury Visions of Louis Daguerre and The Beautiful Miscellaneous.

The Page 69 Test: The Mercury Visions of Louis Daguerre.

The Page 69 Test: Bright and Distant Shores.

--Marshal Zeringue