A View of the Empire at Sunset

Award-winning writer Caryl Phillips presents a beautiful, heart-breaking novel of the life of Jean Rhys, author of Wide Sargasso Sea. â?¿[A] remarkable novelâ?¿ The story of a troubled young woman trying to make her way in England during the early years of the twentieth centuryâ?¿ WILLIAM BOYDIn the heart of Londonâ?¿s Bloomsbury, Gwendolen â?¿ not yet truly famous as the writer â?¿Jean Rhysâ?¿ â?¿ is presented with the opportunity she has been waiting for. Her husband has received an unexpected inheritance; she can, at last, return to the island of her childhood. For Gwendolen, Dominica is a place of freedom and beauty, far away from the lonely nights and failed dreams of England. But this visit home compels her to reflect on the events of her past, and on what they may mean for her future. â?¿Phillipsâ?¿ novel of being and becoming, of memory, and the mythology of writers and writing is a wonder. This is a gift of a bookâ?¿ Niven Govinden, author of All the Days and Nightsâ?¿This dark, glimmering beauty of a novel penetrates the English mist, illuminates the past and present and offers us the life of a great writer, in the heart and mind of this great writer, Caryl Phillipsâ?¿ Amy Bloom, author of White Houses â?¿Subtle and piercingâ?¿ Phillips keeps on taking risks and telling powerful storiesâ?¿ Times Literary Supplement