Tidetown

Book excerpt: Nestled on a windswept coastline, life in Tidetown is quiet and assured. But after a mysterious and mystical black-skinned slave is shipwrecked on its shores time-honoured traditions are unsettled. As events unravel the unfinished business of the barbaric Fishcutter murder comes back to haunt the townsfolk and the unforgettable twins, Perch and Carp, return. In the wider world, rumours of wars, disease and corruption endanger the livelihood and the very existence of this sleepy town. Will Mayor Bruin provide a vision for the future? Can the monks on the Island of Good Hope offer salvation in a time when faith is tested? Can Judge Omega keep evil at bay? All the while, Oscar Flowers, free from his Tidetown childhood, is on his own adventurous quest in lands beyond the sea: a pilgrim’s progress striving for home and purpose, and in search of what it means to be a man. In Robert Power’s masterful third novel, Mrs April, Brother Moses, Oscar and other much-loved characters that first appeared in the magical In Search of the Blue Tiger reconnect in an unexpected and mesmerising tale of adventure and spirit.