Richly imagined and recounted in vivid prose of extraordinary beauty,
this book is a stunning illustration of Ransmayr's talent for imbuing a
captivating tale with intense metaphorical, indeed metaphysical force.
The world's most powerful man, Qiánlóng, emperor of China, invites the
famous eighteenth-century clockmaker Alister Cox to his court in
Beijing. There, in the heart of the Forbidden City, the Englishman and
his assistants are to build machines that mark the passing of time as a
child or a condemned man might experience it and that capture the many
shades of happiness, suffering, love, and loss that come with that
passing.
Mystified by the rituals of a rigidly hierarchical society dominated by
an unimaginably wealthy, god-like ruler, Cox musters all his expertise
and ingenuity to satisfy the emperor's desires. Finally, Qiánlóng, also
known by the moniker Lord of Time, requests the construction of a clock
capable of measuring eternity--a perpetuum mobile. Seizing this chance
to realize a long-held dream and honor the memory of his late beloved
daughter, yet conscious of the impossibility of his task, Cox sets to
work. As the court is suspended in a never-ending summer, festering with
evil gossip about the monster these foreigners are creating, the
Englishmen wonder if they will ever escape from their gilded cage. More
than a meeting of two men, one isolated by power, the other by grief,
this is an exploration of mortality and a virtuoso demonstration that
storytelling alone can truly conquer time.
