Sunday, August 12, 2012

Pg. 69: Sandi Tan's "The Black Isle"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: The Black Isle by Sandi Tan.

About the book, from the publisher:
There are ghosts on the Black Isle.
Ghosts that no one can see.
No one...except Cassandra
.

Uprooted from Shanghai with her father and twin brother, young Cassandra finds the Black Isle's bustling, immigrant-filled seaport, swampy jungle, and grand rubber plantations a sharp contrast to the city of her childhood. And she soon makes another discovery: the Black Isle is swarming with ghosts.

Haunted and lonely, Cassandra at first tries to ignore her ability to see the restless apparitions that drift down the street and crouch in cold corners at school. Yet despite her struggles with these spirits, Cassandra comes to love her troubled new home. And soon, she attracts the notice of a dangerously charismatic man.

Even as she becomes a fearless young woman, the Isle's dark forces won't let her go. War is looming, and Cassandra wonders if her unique gift might be her beloved island's only chance for salvation...

Taking readers from the 1920s, through the Japanese occupation during WWII, to the Isle's radical transformation into a gleaming cosmopolitan city, THE BLACK ISLE is a sweeping epic--a deeply imagined, fiercely original tale from a vibrant new voice in fiction.
Read an excerpt from The Black Isle, view the book trailer, and learn more about the book and author at Sandi Tan's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Black Isle.

--Marshal Zeringue