Product Description

Spanning nearly fifty years, from the 1860s through to the turn of the century, "The Touch" tells the story of Alexander Kinross, who flees from a childhood of poverty in Scotland to make his fortune in the Australian and the American gold fields. In the process, he meets the woman he loves but can never marry - and marries a woman who can never love him. When Alexander Kinross writes home to Scotland for a bride, he is remembered only as a shiftless young boilermaker's apprentice. Since he encloses a draft for one thousand pounds, however, arrangements are swiftly made to send him his young cousin Elizabeth, although it is her sister Jean whom he had wanted. So Elizabeth makes her way across the Atlantic by steam ship, and from there by sail, towards a land she knows nothing about, and a husband about whom she knows still less. Arriving in Sydney, she meets Alexander - handsome, devilish in appearance and manner, and obviously rich, and determined to get richer. He marries her, takes her home across the wild and barren countryside to his great house. What he does not tell her is that he made his first fortune in the California gold rush - and fell in love with perhaps the one woman he will ever truly love. Intermingling the stories of a rich cast of characters, and bringing the novel to a stunning climax as Alexander Kinross sacrifices himself for his wife's happiness, this latest novel is a stunning story of love and passion set against the harsh and brutal world of emerging modern Australia.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #131672 in Books
• Published on: 2004-11-04
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 656 pages

Review
"'Fast-moving and immensely readable... a page turner from start to finish' Maeve Binchy"

When sixteen year old Elizabeth is casually told by her father that she is to be married to a cousin who lives in New South Wales she puts up no resistance. As a woman living in nineteenth century Scotland she knows her place. However when she meets Alexander Kinross, Elizabeth takes an immediate dislike to him. She learns that he despises her father, James Drummond and the Reverend Doctor Murray regarding them as sanctimonious bigots whilst revelling in his own success. Alexander has a 'nose' for gold and has built a town around a mother lode that has seen him becoming wealthy beyond his wildest dreams. Before sending for Elizabeth, the forthright Ruby Costevan has been Kinross's constant lover and companion. The owner of a brothel house with a half-caste son, Lee, she is one of the partners in Alexander's business as well as owning a respectable hotel. To Alexander's chagrin, the two women become firm friends, Ruby helping Elizabeth through two childbirths which give her one precocious daughter whilst the other is mentally retarded. But things are changing in the world at large as Alexander finds out when he travels to Europe and America - his desire for change no matter the cost to his workers bringing him into conflict with his family, employees but worst, Lee, who has become his son in all but name. Colleen McCullough has written a novel that leaps exuberantly from the page. Her characterisation is faultless whilst the extensive research is impeccably threaded through her dialogue. A wonderful read. (Kirkus UK)

From the Publisher
A powerful, sweeping family saga in the grand tradition of the international bestseller THE THORN BIRDS - a story of tragedy, passion, hatred and love

About the Author
Colleen McCullough is the bestselling author of the record-breaking international bestseller The Thorn Birds as well as ten other novels. She lives on Norfolk Island in the Pacific with her husband.