The Seeds of Singing by Kay McGrath
"A gigantic, sprawling blockbuster... an emotionally careening adventure... heaven and hell bump head-on... a winner!" "High adventure," and "A whale of a story in a book that can't be put down!" to quote three book reviewers from the novel's original international release. Published by Dell and the United Kingdom's New English Library in 1983, translated into three additional languages (French, Swedish and Chinese) and sold in nine countries, Seeds of Singing's background is the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia, Borneo and New Guinea) before, during, and after World War II. The story begins in 1939 with an anthropological expedition deep into the unknown and dangerous interior of the unexplored Pacific island of Dutch New Guinea. The expedition falls innocent victim to the violent uprising of New Guinea tribesmen sparked by the provoking presence of colonial Dutch officials. The following cataclysmic upheaval of World War II in the Pacific sweeps the expedition's survivors into the dramatic events of the Japanese invasion of the Indies and the post-war Indonesian struggle for independence from Dutch rule. "The book's descriptions of the New Guinea tribes and their culture as well as the unusual sides of the war the book covers and the authentic way in which the Pacific war is fully evoked combine a narrative pace which never flags," Editor-in-Chief, Dell, 1983. Above all, Seeds of Singing is the bittersweet love story of two anthropologists, trapped by violent circumstances, who share a passion and respect for the primitive societies they study and a fierce love for each other, even as honor and duty to others tears them apart. "Here's a gigantic, sprawling blockbuster saga of two star-crossed lovers who share brief bliss in a jungle paradise before World War II tears their lives to shreds. Part I advances a sophisticated a Heart of Darkness theme... savagery in Part II joins the World Powers slugging it out in the Pacific. Heaven and hell bump head-on in this emotionally careening adventure.. a winner," Los Angeles Times, 1983. "Involving... intelligent... skillfully woven," Publishers Weekly, 1983. "The book took me away completely," Katherine Falk, Romantic Times, 1983. "Painstakingly researched and convincingly described," Washington Post, 1983. The print rights to the book were recently sold by Random House to China and it has since been translated into Chinese (2009) reflecting the wide appeal and continued interest in the story the book has to tell.
About the Author
Kay McGrath has a BA in Journalism from the University of Missouri and a Ph.D in Clinical Psychology from the University of California at Berkeley with a minor in Cultural Anthropology. She spent her professional time as a therapist in private practice and in a community mental health center and crisis clinic in Los Angeles. She now lives in Virginia near Washington, DC with her husband and West Highland terrier, Miss Murphy. As Dell described it at the time of the book's 1983 publication, "In a time when finding a publisher for a first novel is more difficult than ever, Kay McGrath debuted in 1983 with a heartening publishing story to tell. The odds were certainly against her when she sent a 2000 page manuscript to Dell "over the transom" (i.e. without an agent), but Seeds of Singing quickly passed from hand to hand as Dell editor/readers fell in love with the unusual, well-crafted, and 'unputdownable' story". The result has sold in nine countries and in four languages.
Publication Details
Title:
Author(s):
Illustrator:
Binding: Paperback
Published by: New English Library: , 1983
Edition:
ISBN: 9780450056321 | 0450056325
667 pages.
Book Condition: Fair
Cover worn.Text tanned
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