The Yellow Emperor's Cure

Kunal Basu

05 April 2012
9781447223467
330 pages

Synopsis

Kunal Basu, the acclaimed author of The Opium Clerk, The Miniaturist, Racists and the bestseller The Japanese Wife, takes you on a fascinating journey to Portugal and China in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. 'A wonderful and compellingly visual novel, whose world is as completely realised as anything by Robert Graves, Amitav Ghosh or Barry Unsworth'-William Dalrymple '[A] richly painted literary novel . . . a deeply satisfying tale mixing history, cultural clashes, violence and love.'-Kirkus (Starred Review) 'Basu interweaves strands of romance, medicine, and history into a fascinating cross-cultural tapestry. When he learns his beloved father is suffering from a virulent form of syphilis, Portuguese doctor Antonio Maria turns to Eastern medicine in order to find a cure. Travelling to turn-of-the-century China to work with the renowned Doctor Xu, he must immerse himself in Eastern philosophy and master the principle of qi before becoming privy to Xu's secrets. Distracted by both the Boxer Rebellion and the beautiful Fumi, he becomes entangled in personalities and events that move far beyond the arenas of science of [or?] medicine. Conjuring up an exotic time and place, Basu provides a passport into a vanished world.'-Booklist