A New York Times-bestselling novel of the lives, loves, and foibles
of five generations of a British family occupying a manor house in
Wales.
For nearly one hundred and fifty years the Quin family has lived at
China Court, their magnificent estate in the Welsh countryside. The
land, gardens, and breathtaking home have been maintained, cherished,
and ultimately passed along--from Eustace and Adza in the early
nineteenth century to village-girl-turned-lady-of-the-manor Ripsie Quin,
her children, and her granddaughter, Tracy, in the twentieth.
Brilliantly intermingling the past and the present, China Court is a
sweeping family saga that weaves back and forth through time. The story
begins at the end, in 1960, with the death of the indomitable Ripsie,
whose dream of a life at the grand estate was realized through her
marriage to the steadfast Quin brother who loved her--though he wasn't
the one she had always loved.
With thrilling literary leaps across the decades, the story of a British
dynasty is told in enthralling detail. It is a chronicle of wives and
husbands; of mothers, sons, and daughters; of those who could never
stray far from the lush grounds of China Court and the outcasts and
outsiders who would never truly belong.
Bearing comparison to One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García
Márquez, Rumer Godden's novel relates the history of a family with
sensitivity, wit, compassion, and a compelling touch of magical realism.
A family's loves, pains, triumphs, and scandals are laid bare, forming
an intricate tapestry of heart-wrenching humanity, in a remarkable work
of fiction from one of the most acclaimed British novelists of the
twentieth century.
