The Palace Of Heavenly Pleasure

Northern China, 1899. As the Boxer Rebellion erupts, a cast of innocents, fanatics, sinners, and lovers are drawn to the Palace of Heavenly Pleasure - an infamous brothel that overlooks an execution ground - where the fury of the East will meet the ideals of the West and all will face their destiny. Adam Williams's first novel is a historical tour-de-force and a triumphant return to traditional storytelling on a truly grand scale.

Set in the year 1900 in China as the Boxer Rebellion erupts, a host of innocents, fanatics, sinners and lovers are drawn to the Palace of Heavenly Pleasure. Here the fury of the East meets the ideals of the West in a brothel overlooking an execution ground. Originally published: London: Hodder & Stoughton, 2003.

By the age of twenty-one Catherine Cabot has already witnessed more death and hardship than anyone should have to in a lifetime. A nursing veteran of the Great War and the Russian Revolution, she is beautiful, headstrong and complicated, just like her mother. Now all she wants is to lay to rest the ghosts of her past. Her friend, Yu Fu-kuei, is a revolutionary and communist spy determined to sacrifice herself and anybody else for her cause. Caught up in a triangular love affair, Catherine is drawn into China's struggle. As warlords and nationalists tear each other to pieces, and Japanese militarists wait for an excuse to invade, Catherine becomes the pawn of two men who will stop at nothing to wreak their revenge. Meanwhile Yu Fu-kuei, betraying and betrayed, discovers that love might be her strongest weapon.

Who would have thought a group of working girls would help Brooke find not only herself but the love of her life, too? But at Heavenly Pleasures, quite a lot of things are possible... Meet Brooke, a self-confessed shopaholic turned reluctant brothel receptionist, as she stumbles through life, trying to live up to her parents' and fiancé's high expectations—at the cost of her now low self-esteem. Who would have thought a group of working girls would help her rediscover her inner strength and finally tackle her personal demons? But at Heavenly Pleasures, the rules are made to be broken and new opportunities are just around the corner...

Andalucía, 1938. The Spanish Civil War is drawing to its end. Desperate Republican soldiers holding hostages in a cathedral, plan a last, explosive act of death and destruction. One of their prisoners, ex government minister Professor Pinzon, has already lost his son to the war. He determines to save his grandson at any cost. The discovery of an ancient book in a hidden space beneath the cathedral is a welcome distraction. But as Professor Pinzon reads aloud to the frightened hostages, he discovers that this tale of medieval Andaluz and the friendship between three young men – an alchemist, a mason and a prince – besides connecting two ideologically torn worlds 1000 years apart, might also offer a route to freedom . . .

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