The Rose of Sebastopol
Author(s): Katharine McMahon
Russia, 1854: the Crimean War grinds on, and as the bitter winter draws near, the battlefield hospitals fill with dying men. In defiance of Florence Nightingale, Rosa Barr - young, headstrong and beautiful - travels to Balaklava, determined to save as many of the wounded as she can. For Mariella Lingwood, Rosa's cousin, the war is contained within the pages of her scrapbook, in her London sewing circle, and in the letters she receives from Henry, her fiance, a celebrated surgeon who has also volunteered to work within the shadow of the guns. When Henry falls ill and is sent to recuperate in Italy, Mariella impulsively decides she must go to him. But upon their arrival at his lodgings, she and her maid make a heartbreaking discovery: Rosa has disappeared. Following the trail of her elusive and captivating cousin, Mariella's epic journey takes her from the domestic restraint of Victorian London to the ravaged landscape of the Crimea and the tragic city of Sebastopol. As she ventures deeper into the dark heart of the conflict, Mariella's ordered world begins to crumble and she finds she has much to learn about secrecy, faithfulness and love.
Product Information
McMahon brings her magnificent storytelling talent to bear on an epic 19th-century tale of adventure and heartbreak. The Crimean War makes for a tragic and dramatic backdrop, and Florence Nightingale makes a cameo appearance. Katharine McMahon's previous novel, THE ALCHEMIST'S DAUGHTER, won many fans in the trade and was a Waterstones paperback of the year. It reprinted nine times in paperback and received excellent reviews: 'McMahon has given us a first rate historical romance: it's hard to think it will be bettered this year' Independent on Sunday. 'McMahon writes seriously and well, and conveys the disjunction between knowing something scientifically and knowing it emotionally. This is familiar material, but McMahon handles it with intelligence' Daily Telegraph. THE ROSE OF SEBASTOPOL includes Reading Group Notes for the paperback edition.
"absorbing" My Weekly "Brilliant... if you like Jane Austen, you'll probably like this. It's beautifully written" -- Amanda Ross
Katharine McMahon is the author of five novels. She has taught in secondary schools, performed in local theatre and worked as a Royal Literary Fund fellow teaching writing skills at the Universities of Hertfordshire and Warwick. She lives in Hertfordshire.
General Fields
- :
- : Orion Publishing Co
- : Phoenix (an Imprint of The Orion Publishing Group Ltd )
- : 0.29
- : 30 November 2007
- : 198mm X 129mm X 25mm
- : United Kingdom
- : books
Special Fields
- : Katharine McMahon
- : Paperback
- : 6-Aug
- : 416
- : Modern fiction